LAND SETTLEMENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1982, 27 May 1919, Page 3

LAND SETTLEMENT.

SOLDIERS' POINT OF VIEW. r Land settlement is the one direction into which it is safe to divert as many suitable men as possible, because each settler not only contributes to the wealth of the country, but creates suitable work for others, is the opinion expressed by the third annual report of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association. The report points out the need for the appointment of an officer at the association’s headquarters to deal with land problems, and also suggests the desirability of each large district association setting up a land bureau. “Certain features of the administration of the Land Department call for severe comment," the report continues. “Chief among these is the inordinate delay, sometimes extending over three months and more, in dealing with properties under offer to soldiers. There is no sound reason why such properties should not be dealt with within one month in the case of city properties, and six weeks in the case of rural land. Tiie argument that the negotiations are settled faster by the Department than in the case of private land deals is irrelevant, because the settling of returned soldiers is different not only in degree, but in kind, from ordinary settlement. The demand for land by returned soldiers is no casual one to be satisfied through' the ordinary channels of land exchange. Their displacement is due not to economic, but to war causes, and every delay means a period of forced idleness for men who would otherwise have been working. This delay is doubly serious, since many propositions arc rejected by the Government, and an applicant may be obliged to wait long periods before he is finally disposed of. The fees charged for valuation might well be reconsidered. After the first fee Ims been paid, the fees for subsequent valuation of properties should be reduced to a minimum. “It is obvious (hat were the system of land settlement thoroughly organised and advertised an immensely larger number of men than those now offering could be settled, with a corresponding stimulus to production, No adequate effort has been made by the Government to secure the most suitable class of settler, with the result that while nearly every man desirous to settle has been given an opportunity, a considerable number through unfitness of various kinds will fail. The high rate of wages ruling during the war has made men unwilling to begin a period of training in farming, and suitable leadership is necessary for organising a workable group under the system of bringing in large unimproved areas, which would provide training at the same time as a settler is working his holding."