SETTLING SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 29 September 1919, Page 5

SETTLING SOLDIERS.

STRONG CRITICISM. Invercargill, Sept. 20. At a public meeting called by the Southland Returned Soldiers' Association, Dr. Crawford, president, said the Association dissociated itself 'from the action of those trying to dictate as to the scale of gratuities, which were regarded as a gift. Colonel Colquhoun declared that it was wrong that men applying for pensions should be told by medical boards that their ailments were not the result of service. As they had been passed fit for service the Government should now look after them. Men in mental hospitals should receive a pension which should be paid to the Public Trustee for administration, so that it could be used when the man was cured. Dealing with land settlement, Mr HallJones declared that the more the Government did the more harm, it' did by inflating prices, He argued that the Government, instead of paying the full purchase price, should compel the vendor to keep some of the capital on the land, thus saving money and keeping down prices. Ninety per cent, of the men would have gone on the land without the Government's aid, but if the Government's policy had been sane two hundred per cent, more would have been on farms. He criticised the land boards, and said a man offered a farm for £2400 but though the Government's valuation wos £6500, the Land Board would only advance £2200. The man had to raise the balance by borrowing on second mortgage. He estimated that the Government was making £30,000 to £40,000 out of the soldiers in valuation fees alone, and £IOO,OOO by means of stamp duty. He said the delays of the Land Boards were due largely to the complicated machinery which guited the ordlrfary civilian needs. He advocated special boards or simplification of the methods.