NGAROMA SETTLERS’ PROSPECTS FOR RELIEF

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 238, 28 December 1927, Page 8

NGAROMA SETTLERS’ PROSPECTS FOR RELIEF

MINISTER NOT SANGUINE “If the Government were to concede the principle of liability in every case where settlers have failed to make good, it would be difficult to tell where we would end,” declared the Minister o * Lands, the Hon. A. D. McLeod, this morning, when reiterating hie previously expressed statement in Parliament that no distinction could be made between the settlers on the bush-sick lands of Ngaroma and those on the many other areas throughout New Zealand which have provided equally scant opportunity for successful farming. •rpHE Government is doing: all it reasonably Gan/’ t-be MiflMer

said, “but we have to draw the line somewhere, and we draw the line at paying compensation to unsuccessful settlers.” I Bush sickness had not been materij ally alleviated at Ngaroma, and it had been ascertained that the settlement I did not possess the assets with which Ito meet the mortgage liabilities I against the properties. Out of this position there was only one way, and that had been reccn* mended. Where the settlers desired forfeiture of their properties, arrangements were being made by the State I to have them auctioned, and the set- ) tiers themselves would have an opporj tunity of buying in their mortgage at | a competitive value. As the assets | clearly were not there, this was the | only solution. ! The Minister was emphatic on one | point. “Some of the settlers are driftj ing away from Ngaroma,” he said, “but | until they have cleared up their obli- ■ gations to the State Advances Depart- | ment, they cannot expect the Governj ment to give them a fresh start on I the land-.-”