LAND SETTLEMENT

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 3262, 12 May 1943, Page 4

LAND SETTLEMENT

NATIONAL PARTY’S PLAN

FARMS FOR EX-SOLDIERS

PROHIBITING SPECULATION Referring to the National Party’s land settlement policy, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland, in his address in Paeroa last night said that its objectives were to have an increasingly 1 arge number of prosperous, independent, self-reliant farmers producing wealth that could be exchanged for the goods which other countries could provide and which could not be made in New Zealand. The party would profit by past mistakes, claimed the speaker, and give the people of New Zealand the best, most practicable and worth-while land settlement scheme that had ever been put forward in this country.

Ex-servicemen would be settled on the land at its productive value and no more, continued Mr Holland, while those without previous experience would be first given'a sound training in farm management. The selection of suitable areas and the supervision of new settlers’ work would be un-

dertaken by local advisory committees of practical farmers. Areas that became ready for production would be balloted for by those in the group, as had been done in the group system in Western Australia.

Mr Holland gave an assurance that land speculation would be prohibited, under the scheme. Any difference between the cost of development and the productive value of the land would be borne by the country as a whole. Provision would be made for the reduction of mortgages by the repayment of principal. Rural settlers would. be given the same amenities available in the cities at the same rates the city people paid.

When Mi* Holland said that no conscientious . objector would have anything to do with, the National Party’s rehabilitation service, his remark was greeted with rounds of applause. The party’s aim would be to provide opportunities for success for everyone who was prepared to work, and to provide openings for British immigrants to settle in New Zealand.