SOLDIERS' LANDS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4667, 27 February 1924, Page 1

SOLDIERS' LANDS.

DEPARTMENT CRITICISED. THE STOCK MORTGAGE PROBLEM. ‘ The Lands Department came iu £Ol some very severe criticism at the hands of the Returned Soldiers Executive. Many of the best returned soldier settlers, said several speakers, were in desperate plight, and their case could be remedied only by the passing of fresh legislation. “The Lands Department is the worst I have come across,’’ said Mr R. B. Bell (Canterbury) at the quarterly meeting'of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association executive on Saturday. “There is no courtesy, no dispatch of business. Y'ou cannot get anything done.” The chairman (Sir Andrew Russell) remarked that there was not so much dissatisfaction with the land boards ; as with the Department. The Minister of Lands l (Hon. D. H. Guthrie) wrote with reference to the ! request, that two members be elected to each land board on the grounds that the number of Crown tenants had 1 been greatly increased by discharged soldiers, that, the number of returned ! soldiers who had acquired Crown : lands (4881) was only about 14 per 1 cent, of the total number of Crown : tenants (34,886), and he could not re ■ commend that the law be amended to provide for the election of more than . .one person to each laud board. It was decided to express the dissatisfaction of the executive and to press for the increase of the representation of Grown tenants. The position of soldiers on the land, said Colonel A. H. Herbert (Eketahuna), the association’s representative on. the . New Zealand Farmers’ Union Dominion Executive, was most disappointing. “Listeuiiig to the correspondence,” he Said, “J am convinced that the time ha* come to show the Government it cannot fool ns any longer.” They Had had the Prime Minister’s assurance that a revaluation of soldiers’ pro-. ■ perty would be made, but it has now found that the committee had power to revalue the land only, not to review stock mortgages. There were soldiers I who had availed themselves of the ! full £750 mortgage who were now in I the position that they bad to repay I short-dated loans without the assistance they had expected. That, he was sure, was not the intention of the Act, ; but they could do nothing. The sol-, diey settler had been fooled. To re- . duee the price of his land but leave "hjm saddled with a mortgage that would sink him was not assisting him at all. Mr Loadley said that the cases of mein who had made private arrangements had been overlooked. He knew of a case where private mortgagee's were willing to assist, but the Government was taking the soldier’s wool cheque for the repayment of the £750 stock mortgage. The soldier was forced to seek an economic pension. A case was mentioned in which the second mortgagee wa,s prepared to wipe his mortgage right out, but he knew that if he did so he would onlv be making the Crown a present of nearly £5OO. This he was not prepared to do, so the soldier must struggle on, knowing that the harder he worked and the more likely he was to be place the more likely he was to be called on to pay £5OO for which he had no assets. Colonel Herbert said the Act was framed to enable a soldier farmer to keep liis land and carry on. But it was necessary to give the man such relief that he could carry on. With the' arrival of' the slump there were . hundreds of men oh land on whic.i they could not carry on. “We must cut our losses, even if it is four mil> lions,” he said. Some soldiers were paying on £750 stock mortgages, the stock of which were now worth £3OO owing to the decline of prices. Sir Andrew Russell: It does not seem possible to get relief without i amended legislation, hut the revaluers’ rebates could be secured pending that. It is desirable that the present boards should consider the matter, or a fresh report will be necessary and delay be caused. Mr Ixmg said that the beards were now doing that. Mr R. B. Bell moved, and Mr Leadley seconded, the following motion, which was carried : “That this executive learns with amazement and regret that there is no provision in-the Discharged Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Amendment Act, 192.3, for the reduction oi mortgages and current accounts to the State under paragraph C of section 2 of the 1917 Act. As it is vital in very many cases that soldier settlers should be granted reductions in connection with their loans on current account as well as on their

mortgages on loan, tho executive requests the President (Sir Andrew Russell), Colonel A. H. Herbert, Messrs W. Perry, A. T. Duncan, and the members of Parliament specially interested, to interview the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Land and Agriculture to place the full facts before them, and to impress on the Cabinet (and on Parliament, if necessary) the urgent necessity of remedying the present situation by granting redress through a further admendment of the Act during the coming session.”