SOLDIERS' SETTLEMENTS

Otaki Mail, Volume 26, 23 April 1919, Page 4

SOLDIERS' SETTLEMENTS

;,.v.\; "■</" ' ■ ' 1 WIDESPREAD DISSATISFACTION. The National Government lias not yet"succeeded in satisfying either tho rct-uriic.d'mpA or the. general public that it is making the best possible progress •with its .sehcjh.c for settling soldiers on the land. Complaints just now, indeed, are most frequent and fervid than ever before, It is being put about that-the Laud Purchase. Board has acquired two or three' properties which arc utterly unsuitable for this class of settlement, and that there' is not the least chance of their boiug occupied profitably except in very large holdings and by men with considerable capital and exceptional experience. One of these properties was the subject of a resolution by the Auckland Returned Soldiers' Association the other day and another has liccn described as one of the most hopeless pieces of country in the Tauranga pumice area. : But cases of this kind, it may be hoped, are few nud far between. The common complaint is that men capable of working small areas of good land with every prospect of success are unable .to obtain holdings'of this dcserip- ' turn. Ths Land Purchase Boards very properly has set its face against high priced land, but, so it is alleged, has failed lo recognise that 50 acres of land tit £4O an acre is often a much better than 1000 acres at £2. The returned man who asks for good land is .told that his duty and his opportunity lie in/getting out into the backblocks anil subduing the wilderness awaiting him there. This is admirable in theory, but it does not commend' itself to the soldier in practice, and as often as not he find? it more attractive to deal with the private seller than'with, th> State, and thus loses some of the advantages Parliament intended he shcui:. enjoy.