SOLDIER SETTLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 April 1922, Page 7

SOLDIER SETTLERS.

BURDEN of MORTGAGES. PLEA FOR A REDUCTION. When the deputation of soldier settlers waited upon the Prime Minister and. the Minister for Lands, Hon. D. H. Guthrie, in Wellington last week, Mr. D. S. Smith (representing officially the Returned Soldiers’ Association) asked if there was any reason why the Government should not do what private mortgagees were doing, and meet its soldier settler mortgagees and agree to a reduction of the amount of the mortgage. Mr. Massey: So far as Kopane is concerned, the men got the land well within the value. . Mr. Guthrie: Much of it is land sold at large profits; but we got no profits. Mr. Massey: Many of the men are doing as well as the ordinary settlers, though I do not say they arc making fortunes. A man is fortunate nowadays if he is more than clearing expenses. Mr. Smith asked that each case should be considered on its mdrits; and that, where a case was approved by the ranger or other officers of the department, a remission of rent should be given. If the men lost heart and threw up the land, the Government would lose by it; and it would pay the Government to give assistance to carry the men on. Mr. Massey: You are asking that, where the settlers have difficulty in making ends meet special consideration should be extended to them? That (emphasising it with a blow of his fist on the table) is the policy of the Government. Mr. .Smith: Yes, we ask that the men should be given an assurance to that effect. Mr. Massey: I have been through it, and I have sympathy with the men who have difficulty in getting on; but, on tie other, hand, I am a trustee of the State, and have to see that the State is not subjected to heavy loss. Mr. Smith: These men were at the front. They did not get any profits of the war. Mr. Massey: Where are those profits now ? Mr. Smith: The profits of the war years are now in the hands of the men who sold out to the Government at a profit. Mr. Massey: And some of them have had to take their land back. Mr. Smith: Those who sold to the Government have not. Surely, the whole State should bear the responsibility of helping these men ? Mr. Massey: We are going to do what we can; but we have to think of the interests of the taxpayer as well as of the man on the land. Mr. Smith contended that these men were entitled to special consideration, and where they were not able to make ends meet the Government should bear the responsibility of helping them. He asked for an assurance that this would be done. The Prime Minister sympathised with the settlers in their difficulties, but said that each case must be considered on its merits.