REPATRIATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 November 1918, Page 7

REPATRIATION.

A CONGESTION OF SCHEMES/ DEFINITE POLICY NEEDED, Repatriation of soldiers hais become a stock subject of discussion by both branches of the Legislature. Many theories are offered for a satisfactory reinstatement, of men in useful civilian occupations. As a rule, When a man exchanges mufti for khaki he hopes to have the option of resuming his former employment, if he lias the luck to return fit for the work. Mr Wilkinson asked in tli/ House of Representatives whether private employers had been spoken to by, t'ho Government on this matter. Every firm should be obliged to state publicly whether it would take back in the same positions, at the same pay, the men who had fought for their country. He believed that employers should be compelled to so reinstate returned soldiers. One local body had advertised a position with a salary oi £350 a year. There were many applications from returned soldiers, and he understood that at least one was qualified for the work, but all the returned men had been turned ,<lown. Local bodies, helped by Government subsidies, should be toid firmly that they must act fairly by returned boldiers.

Citing a recent case in which there had been no applicants to enter a soldiers' training farm, t'he Hon. D. Buddo remarked that it wast no use expecting these men to come under discipline of any kind. A suggestion made to him the other day by a practical farmer was that he and other farmers should take two or three returned soldiers, treat them as they would wish their awn sous to be treated, and train tiheni for as long as the Efficiency Board thought necessary. An outside board oli on Id fix the remuneration to be paid to the men; but the farmer would do everything else. Communal settlements, Mr Buddo added, were not wanted by the soldiers, and he was pleased to see the Minister of Lands was avoiding them. Settlement of soldiers on the land should be part of a comprehensive system of colonisation after the war, said the Hon. W. H. Trigga in the Legislative Council. The need for increased production was not to bo met by the purchase of land which was already put to pro-' ductive use, and distributing it among soldiers. What was ■wanted was to bring into use the large areas of land at present lying idle. It was a mistake to forth soldier settlements apart. Sir Francis Bell: When the land was acquired, would you throw it open to the public? Mr Triggs replied that the system should operate as a part of a general settlement scheme. If soldiers were segregated, they would have unscrupulous politicians .exploiting the soldiers, encouraging them to have grievances, and to think of themselves apart t'roiri the community. The Hon. George Jones: You would have that in any case, would you not? Mr Triggs: Not to the same extent. The soldiers should be encouraged to feel that their interests and the several interests of the community were alike. Mr Triggs quoted the system of settlement in ready-made farms as carried out by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company The lands were cut up, roaded. 'buildings erected, and a portion of the land prepared for crops; ther Whole cost being iucluded in t'he capital charge on which the settler had paid interest. New Zealand should undertake thing of that kind on a large scale; ininstead ,of the "hand-to-mouth operations of the past. Fruit-farming also fstonlji be a profitable line of busftieSs iers if the difficulty of fffliHgifthft titye before the trees caifle into "beSi'ing'fibild be overcome. That might'begone..'jty putting soldiers on to devefotytfeiitvwdrjc in connection with a general* fHiit"3<#t|lement scheme. ,--'W'