FINANCE FOR SETTLERS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 203, 16 November 1927, Page 6

FINANCE FOR SETTLERS

POOR LANDS PROBLEM QUESTION OF LIMIT Should the Government place every unsuccessful Crown lands settler on fresh holdings with sufficient capital at his disposal to make a fresh start? That, in effect, was a question discussed at an executive meeting of the Auckland Provincial, branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union last evening. discussion arose out of a letter from a Ngaroma settler. Bush sickness, he wrote, had been responsible for him making a failure of one of the Ngaroma holdings. The department had recognised this and granted him an abandoned holding, rent-free for a time, in another district. The new holding was partly improved and contained a house, but he had not sufficient capital to stock it, however, and asked the union’s assistance in approaching the Government for a loan. Mr. R. D. Duxfield said that it was a very difficult question for the Government to handle, as if this man was granted an advance it would be setting a precedent. “It seems only right that the Government should assist these men,” said Mr. Feisst. Captain Colbeck: You must put a limit on what the Government can do. You have got to go steady. It’s no use making a recommendation that is absurd. The speaker suggested that the settler should go to the dairy factory operating in his district for finance. Mr. C. C. Munro.did not see that the union could go any further with the question. Mr. Feisst still maintained that the question was a national one for the Government to undertake. “We cannot expect the Government to do everything,” said the president, Mr. A. A. Ross. “It has given this man a farm for nothing, rent-free for a term.” It was decided to refer the question to the Matamata branch of the union.