SOLDIER SETTLERS.

Taranaki Daily News, 25 August 1922, Page 5

SOLDIER SETTLERS.

FAILURES IN AUSTRALIA. ACUTE GRIEVANCES. large sums spent. By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright. Received August 24; 8.40 p.m. Sydney, August 24. The Assembly adopted a motion to appoint a royal commission to inquire into soldier settlements with a view to adjusting grievances. These grievances are widespread and acute. The Minister of Lands stated that some estates, which were purchased at great expense, were ruined and unoccupied. In other cases, where blocks had never been confirmed, i.dvaances were made without security. Although money was available and a large number of soldiers were desirous of settling he refused to purchase any more estates, because the system was unsound and the principle wrong, and in many cases it was impossible for men to make a success of their farms. New South Wales had arranged to spend £17,500.000 on settlements, of which the Commonwealth Government would provide £12,250,000. Already £9,826,000 of the Commonwealth advances and £1,861,000 of tfy? State money had been expended in settling 7025 soldiers, and numbers of them had abandoned their holdings. To a large extent the capse of the unsatisfactory’ results was the fact that the only qualification required was a miiltary discharge, and many of the men were without knowledge or experience of country life. Broken in health and lacking .an aptitude for the calling they were placed on the land with debts of thousands of pounds hanging over their heads. The whole system urgently demanded reorganisation. A total of 13S0 soldiers still remain to be settled.