LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 26 July 1917, Page 2

LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

THE matter of providing suitable land for returned soldiers is daily becoming more important. Eecently, in the House, Mr T. M. Wilford referred to this, and as a means out of the difficulty advocated the holding of a ballot amongst the large landholders to determine whose land should be first taken for soldiers' settlements. The Government must shortly consider the gross unfairness of sending returned soldiers away into the backblocks, without roads or other transit facilities, while millions of acres of comparatively idle land nearer to the centres of civilisation and the public services of the Dominion, misht be utilised with advantage. The North is in need of settlement, and having provided their full quota of soldier boys since the inception of the war, it is only fair that land should be provided for them as near as possible to where they took their departure from. As there is a considerable amount of idle land in the Kaipara district near the railway in need of settlement the time is now opportune when representation should be made to the Government to have some of it, at least, thrown open for selection by our returned heroes.