SOLDIER SETTLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 28 February 1922, Page 8

SOLDIER SETTLERS.

HELP IN HARD TIMES. SIR A. RUSSELL’S VIEWS. POLICY OF GOVERNMENT. In an address at Wanganui this week. Sir Andrew Russell, president of the Oominion Returned Soldiers’ Association, made special references to the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act. He said many men had settled on highlypriced land and now found that they could not make it pay, because of the low values of produce. Many were inclined to blame the Government, but, if anybody had suggested in 1919 that the Government should cease to buy land until the value declined, there would have been a general outcry from all over the country. It was hard luck, but many of the civilian farmers were in worse plight. The Government could do no good by turning these men off their land, providing they were doing their job and keeping the show going. Under the amendment to the Act, the Minister had received discretionary power to postpone the payments of interest until the end of the periods of instalments, thereby really extneding the period before which the farm became the property of the farmer by a year for every year in which he was not able to pay his interest. This would enable him to carry on until prices improved. It was all they could expect, and was certainly all they were going to get.

The association would have to see that very good reasons were given why this concession was not given to applicants. He said the Act had not been stopped altogether, but those who needed assistance most were getting it. The Government, pn the whole, was administering the Act in tne spirit that was intended.

Continuing, he referred to the necessity for organisation. Eighty per cent, of the returned soldiers were more or less comfortably settled in civil life. Twenty per cent, were not in that position, and it was up to those who were well off to look after those who were aot so well off. If they did not do so they could not reasonably expect the country to do it. Members should not think of what they were getting out of the association by continuing to be members. If to get cheap beer and billiards was their motive, then , the association would soon fade away. If returned men joined with the object of helping those who could not help themselves, then they were doing something worth while, and the association would continue to grow and flourish.