Discharged Soldiers' Settlement.

Digger (Invercargill RSA), Issue 31, 15 October 1920, Page 4

Discharged Soldiers' Settlement.

LOAN BILL OF £6,000,000. t COMPULSION IF NECESSARY.

WELLINGTON, October 8. In the House of Representatives this afternoon, Mr Massey moved the second reading of the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Loans Bill. He said the Bill could scarcely be called contentious, as he thought most members agreed to the principle of helping soldiers. Ha wished to make it clear that the money would not be nsed for any other purpose until the soldiers had been supplied with the land required. The amount of ihe loan was £6,000,000, and he thought he saw a way of adding to that another £1,000,000. The rate of interest would be 5£ per cent., and though the term of the loan was not yet fixed, he thought it would not be leSs than ten years and not more than fifteen. , Two and a-half millione of this loan would be set apart for payment of death duties and judging by the previous experience he thought -this sum would be taken up for this purpose. There were compulsory claases in the Bill but these differed from the provisions of the previous Bills, and would only amount to a sum equal to^one year's land and income tax. This was the last compulsory loan, because nothing but the war justified compulsion, and as no further war was in sight he thought they could afford not to insist on compulsion in future. One clause instituted a new principle enabling the Government to buy bac^: its own debentures if they were being ' sold on the market at below par. This was regularly done in Britain, and was, he thought, good business. Mr Massey then proceed'ed to read tabulated details of Government oper.ations in connection with the repatriation and settlement of soldiers. Summing up these operations, he said they ehowed a great record. No oountry in the world had done so much for its soldiers, and he was particularly pleased to say that the great majority of the soldiers were doing well. There had been failures, but these were few and far between. The country was undoubtedly solvent, and he did not think the threatened eommercial deprpssion would affect us, or at least not for long. The whole of the future rested in our hands. What we had to do was to increase production, to bring new lands into productivity, and to make the cultivated lands produce more. The. secondary industries should be encouraged, but the primary industries must come first. New Zealand would not he a manufacturing cotmtry for many years, and the most we could hope from the secondary industries was that they would supply local requirements for the next quarter of a century. Mr T. M. Wilford said no one could doubt the solvency of the country, because while we had increased our indebt-. ednesfl -to £201 ,000, (XX) our private wealth alone would balance that. No one would object to assistance being given to soldiers but the question was whether we were doing the best we could with the money we had. He did not think it necessary to put the compulsory clauses into effect, because he believed that a-ll the money required would be readily subscribed so good was the interest and so good was the investment. There was even a possibility of the Government receiving more money than was required, and if so he recommended the Government to adopt the suggestion made by Dr Thacker that the surplus should be handed over to local bodies, whose loan r ~als might be im. perilled by the mOie a otraetive Government proposals. The point he wished' to make', however, was the failure of the Government from want of sympathy to take land compulsorily for soldiers. The Premier was fond of telling the House that he had made. 20,000 sub-divisions in recent years, but when he was asked how many new settlers had been placed . on these subdivisions he could not reply. Mr Massey : It is quite impossible to say. Continuipg, Mr Wilford said the whole of the land purchased for soldiers had been purhased by private treaty, and he quoted figureg supplied by the Commissioner of Crown Lands in Canterbury giving the excessive prices being asked by the owners of land offered to the Government. Mr Massey : These prices were not paid. Mr Wilford declared that there were two properties in the Wairarapa wbich

belonged to two men without chiek or child, and which soldiers were clamouring to have acquired. These estates ought to be taken and they should be taken through the Public Works Act. The Premier had said that land should be taken compulsorily. He said he would do so, but he had not done it. No individual should be permitted to hold land to block soldiers' settlement. It had been the proclaimed policy of the Government to settle solwas now ending. He paid a tribute to . the generou:i assistance given by tffe people in the Wairarapa in placing men on the land. Fifty thousand acres had been bought there much at about half the market value. On this 184 men were settled. Other parts of the Wellington province had also done well, and the province had settled more soldiers on the lafid than any other province. The Minister also detailed the good work done by the repatriation and after-care branches of the Department in ldoking after returned men. Applications for financial assistance had iately decreased. • Up to September 30, 4375 loans for acquiring or establishing businesses had been approved, involving an expenditure of £992,446. A further 9248 men were granted loans for the purchase of furniture, tools, etc., and 3735 rtceived assistance in other ways, the payments made under all headings on behalf cf the men to repay their obligations to the department were very few, only about 5 per cent. of the total assisted. Mr G. Mitchell congratulated the Government and country on what had been done for the soldiers, but he urged that every effort was needed to get the men settled in the country. The balance of population had drifted to the cities and towns toq. quickly. Mr V. H. Potter contended that the Government shouid not be spending money on the compulsory acquisition of ejstates to settle returned soldiers upon while so much Native and Crown land was lying idle. Mr R. McCallum objected to C'ause 7 which proposed that the Goverament should become stock jobbers. The proposed power to purchase depreci'ated stocks was fraught with danger. He objected to returned men being allowed to become the serfs of mortgagees, which was wbat would eventuate if the present policy of placing them on such 'dear land were continued. He protested against the proposed further £6,000,000 loan for soldier. diers ! in ihe districts from which they came, but had this been done? It was a crying shame that land fit for soldiers' settlement was being held just because the owners did not offer it. It ought to be taken compulsorily. The Hon. D. H. Guthrie said that the Leader of the Opposition seemed to think that the Government was subdividing land merely for sport. The fact was that they had found homes for 15,000 soldiers. One of the Wairarapa properties referred to by Mr Wilford had been offered to the Government at a price at which it was a gift, but had to be turned down because it could riot be profitably cut up. He defended the Government from criticisms oi the policy pursued jn buydng land for soldier settlements. When the men first hegan to return from the war it was felt that they were not in a condition to break in new land, and some small areas w,ere bought to settle them on. That practice the present soldier settlement policy there was a tendency for the prices of land to be unduly inflated by Government expenditure in purchasing estates. It would have been better tojhave acquired portions of large estates compulsorily at fair prices. At 12.20 Mr Massey rose to reply, deprecating the policy of taking land by compulsion for settlement purposes because of the cost. and delays caused by the Court proceedings. If land was to be provided for soldiers the most expeditious method was to pass the taxation Bill now before the House, and impose the graduated land | tax and if land was in existence it wouid I come under settlement, but personally he did not know where the big estates were which some members talked of so glibly. The second reading was agreed to cn the voices, and the Houee went into commattee on the Bill, which was put through in five minutee without amendment. It was then read the third time and pass^d^