PROFITEERING IN LAND.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 4, 9 April 1920, Page 13

PROFITEERING IN LAND.

HOW THE SOLDIERS ARE BLED. EXTORITONATE PRICES ASKED FOR PROPERTIES. It is but a short cry to tlie time when recruiting meetin.gs were being c.d in different parts of Dunedin anu i.. nery centro in Otago, and it is not diiiicult to remember how stalwart young men, fired with patriotism, in response to appeais made to them to rally round the "good oid tiag" and help to turn back the onrushing Hun, doimed the King's uniform and nobly helped to defeat the enemy of civilisation, believing that the promises made to them — that they would be pro- ] tected and cared for upon their return — | would bo carried out. It is true that a great many of the promises made to our soldiers have been kept and doubtless will continue to be kept. There are many mt.n to-day who had had opened up for them a life entirely diflerent from that to wliieh they left to go to the front, and, judging from information gleaned by a "Eaiiy Times" reporter last week, others are embarking upon ventures which are doomed to failure at the outset. This applies more particularly to the purchase of property. Instarices of the high prices which are being extorted from returned soldiers desirous of settling on the land came before the Otago Land Board at a recent meeting, and which leaves little

room for doubt that profiteenng in lana is being carried on to an abnormal degree. What would appear to be a particularly bad case is that concerning a small farm situated north of Dunedin, which was sold to a returned soldier for £630. Two valuations of the property were made subsequently by Government officials, and each of these disclosed the fact that tho value of the farm was considerably belovr £200. The soldier occupant applied for an advance on his stock, but in the circumstances this was refused by the board. Auother case is connected with the sale of a resideneo for which the owner paid £625, but which he had tried to sell to a returned soldier for £880, but subsequent)v he reduced his price to £845. This latter price. according to the reports of tii» valuers, was absolutely excessive, and rn application by the soldier to the Land Board for an advance of money against this property was declined. Ihis soldier is a man who suffered severely during the war, and is permanently disabled. In the South Otago distriet there has beeii discovered the sale of a farm to a soldier for a sum between £3000 and £4000. The soldier applied for an advance of £2-500, and the proposition on paper looked all right, but the Government valuers assessed the value of the property at £1977, ?nd, therefore, the application f.or the advance was declined by the board.