HELPING EX-SOLDIERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 12 July 1922, Page 4

HELPING EX-SOLDIERS.

SUCCESS OF SETTLEMENT. TAKING SOME MILK CHEQUES. MINISTER EXPLAINS WHY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. Speaking in the House to-night the Hon. D. H. Guthrie said the Government had been accused of taking a hundred per cent, of a soldier’s milk cheques, but where this was done it was only in the interests of the wife and children. The soldiers as a whole were a fine body of men, but unfortunately there were some foolish men amongst them and they had sometimes to be protected against themselves, and that was all the Government had done. No returned soldiers had been badly treated by the Government. The Minister said they had nothing to regret regarding soldier settlements. It was true that in some cases the land bought proved unsuitable for cutting up. The public cry for settling soldiers and bursting up big estates was to some extent responsible for these mistakes, but mistakes were difficult to avoid in a scheme so big as settling 20,105 soldiers on farms and in homes at a total cost under the three Acts of £28,564,375. This money was being repaid in a most satisfactory manner, the losses being insignificant. To show that the soldiers had not been neglected he mentioned that no less than 50,004 soldiers had passed through the hands of various Government departments. He had discussed with the Premier the position of soldier settlers and it had been decided to appoint a board to go through and report on every settlement, and so furnish the Government with accurate information, and on that information the Government would assist those soldiers who were making honest efforts to pull through and who required assistance.