SOLDIER SETTLERS.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5168, 22 August 1927, Page 3

SOLDIER SETTLERS.

FESCUE MENACE AT ORONGO.

MR. RHODES’ PLEA FOR RELIEF.

“Unfortunately, we do not know the contents of the report we are discussing,” said Mr T. \V. Rhodes in the House of Representatives, when speaking on a report brought down Minister of Lands, “and therefore we cannot deal with the various matters which have received the at-

tention of the Minister during the past twelve months. We do know, however, that he has been endeavouring to do as much as circumstances would permit in the direction of assisting soldier settlers to make good. I am certain that the Minister is quite sympathetic in the matter, but he is limited in the same way as others are limited. His department is held up through lack of powers, and he, too, is under that (handicap, with the result that the soldier settlers are not receiving the amount of assistance that the people of the Dominion and Parliament wish them to receive. “I understand,” continued Mr Rhodes, “that the Minister has in contemplation legislation which, I trust, will enable him to remove the disabilities of some of the settlers in my district—men .who are in their present unfortunate position through no fault of their own. The matter was, brought under the notice of the Minister when he visited the district, and he knows what is needed. In regard to one section in particular, I know he is trying earnestly to find a solution, and I am hoping that in the near future I shall receive an intimation from the Minister that he is going to give these men a chance of making good in their own locality. In the case of the settlement at Orongo, the majority of the settlers, thanks to the assistance that has been given them, are likely to come out all right in th© end. A few, as the Minister has recognised have no chance of making good under present conditions because of the inroads of tall fescue. There appears to be no prospect of clearing the Plains of .this menace, which has really become a., noxious weed and should be treated as such. The Minister Jiad tried to meet these settlers by reducing their rent, where that was necessary, and even by freeing them from rent for a period. The Government has made experiments with regard to the eradication of the tall fescue, but its efforts, like those of the settlers' at the northern end of the settlement, have been of no effect. The Minister recognises that these men are in a hopeless position. I would like to have an assurance from him that he will make l some further effort to give them another chance elsewhere. Surely, in their hopeless positron brought about by no fault of their own, they are entitled to that chance. Probably, if they were off their selections something could be done in a comprehensive way to deal with the tall fescue. The quality of the land is all. right, if only we coud get rid of the weed, for such it has become. Sometimes it grows as high as a man, smothering up all other vegetation. A settler in the affected ■ajfeas may sow new grass, and when heavy rain comes it causes a flood, which carries the seed of the fescue over his area and destroys his pasture of English grasses. The Minister has offered these settlers an opportunity to select farms that have been abandoned by others, but they are men who have no means left to enable them to travel any considerable distance. There is land in their own district, and I would ask the Minister to consider whether he cannot give .them an opportunity of selecting farms within walking distance which they would be able to inspect, or in the alternative that he will provide the : m with the means of paying the cost of examining land elsewhere. Some of them are simply hanging on to their selections, killing time, and that is of no use to themselves or the country. They are practical farmers, and w’e need to see them re-establish-ed somewhere they will be abl e to help themselves and increase the productivity of .the country. I am not blaming the Minister for the settlers’ position, but only appealing to him to get his officers to devise some kmeans whereby the settlers shall be given another chance. The Hon. Mr McLeod: What settlers has the honourable gentleman in mind ? “The Orongo settlers,” replied Mr Rhodes. “They have no chance at all where they are, and are merely eating their hearts out. Most of the abandoned farms elsewhere have been proved to be of no value to poor men. These soldiers are all poor men with .. only their labour as their asset. I believe that the north end of Orongo, if it were taken in hand by some expert, could be made profitable after a while, but for poor men it is now absolutely hopeless. .Others further south are doing quite well and making good. Some of them need a,, little more land, and I trust the Minister will put things in train to enable them to get what they want. The position has become somewhat serious, and I hope the Minister will instruct his officers to get to work and do something. If additional legislation is required, now is the time to consider it. The Minister may, of course, be contemplating legislation to meet this particular case. I hope he is, but in any case I strongly urge that he give the' matter his earnest and so enable these men to make homes for themselves and their families under fair conditions.”