SOLDIER SETTLERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4662, 15 February 1924, Page 2

SOLDIER SETTLERS.

ORONGO SETTLEMENT. IMPOSSIBLE TO PAY RATES. Messrs Hall, Lowry, and Smith, soldier settlers of Orongo, waited upon the Hauraki Plains County Council at its last meeting with regard tp the payment of rates. Mr Hall said that it was impossible for the soldier,s to pay these rates, and asked that they be remitted. To postpone the payment would, make it harder later on. The clerk said that there was no power under the Counties Act to postpone rates. The council could remit them in cases of poverty. Mr Hall said that the soldiers could plead poverty, but would rather have the settlement considered like other Crown settlements, which were not rated for three years after being

opened up. The chairman said that this could not be done. Individual cases of hardship could be dealt with separately. The rates were struck on a valuation of about £2O an acre, so the reduction by the Valuation Board of the purchase price of the land would not affect the position.

Members pointed out that the council could not give a sweeping reduction of rates, but if individual settle)s conferred with the clerk their cases would be dealt with.

One settler mentioned that the net return from his section for the past two years was £25. The amount of rates demanded was almost as much as this, yet he was not in the worst position of those on the estate.