LAND SETTLEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 April 1919, Page 2

LAND SETTLEMENT.

BRITISH GOVERNMENT SCHEME. FULFILLING PLEDGE TO FIGHTERS. London, April 14. Sir A. Griffith Boacawen, in the House of Commons, moving the second reading of the Land Settlement TiVilUies Bill, said it fulfilled the pledge to provide land for ex-fighters. The Government would subsidise pound for pound a man's capital. The Government had bought about 20,000 acres for small holdings. There would be three categories, varying from half an acre to fifty acres. The first class would be farm colonies, enabling the holder gradually to increase the size of his holding to a small selfsupporting plot; the second, the cottage holder with three acres, for men in employment on the land; the third, the whole-time holder, with 20 to 30 acres for small mixed or dairy farmers and five to 11 acres for fruit or vegetable farms.

Applicants would he given an opportunity, with certain limitations, to purchase after seven years at the then value. Equal facilities would be open to women who had had six months' experience on the land. Several members appealed for permanency of tenure for war-time allotment holders who had grown vegetables on thousands of acres of park and waste lands.

Sir Newton Moore urged the establishment of an agricuT.ural bank, which would be more helpful to new settlers than the local banks. The Government should advise men who desired to take up land in the Dominions where large areas were available. The Bill was read a second time.— Aus-NZ. Cable Assn.