ASSISTING SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1922, Page 5

ASSISTING SOLDIERS

THE RECORD TO DATE

OVER £28,000,000 ADVANCED.,

The total number of returned soldiers assisted by the Lands Department and the Repatriation Department up to 31st January, 1922, was 77,934. ' The Lands Department assisted 9485 men to acquire rural homes and 10,671 to acquire towrThomes, while the Repatriation Department placed in employment 26,439, provided training for 7432,. and gave financial assistance to 23,997. On the purchase of estates under the Land for Settlement Act, £6,015,497 was expended ; advances for purchase of land, dwellings, and stock, and for improvements under the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1917, totalled £20,357,332;. and loans for businesses, furniture, tools, etc., and other financial assistance, amounted to £2,166,462; making up grand total of £28,539,291.. . ; Under that branch of the repatriation scheme which is concerned with the settlement of rural land, 2095 men were settled on 499,000 acres of "settlement land," 1746 "were placed on 1,529,----000 acres of Crown land, and 5654 were financially assisted to acquire 1,275,000 acres of private land. . ■•; •

The total of £20,357,332 mentioned above was made up as follows—Advances towards purchase of private or Nativeland, 4057; authorisations, representing £6,728,264; advances towards purchase of Crown leaseholds, 1105, representing £1,618,548; advances to discharged mortgages, to enable soldiers to acquire private lands, 496, representing £422,542; advances for purchase of stock and improvements, 9531, representing £3,880,----322; advances towards purchase or erection of town dwellings, 10,671, representing £7,707,656. The advances actually paid over totalled £19,358,720, made up as follow: Current account, £3,351,281; farms, etc., £8,755,622; 'dwellinga, £7,251,817. At 31st January, £1,354,665 of the £19,358,720 paid over -for-the purchase of town and rural.homes, .and for improvements and stock had been repaid. The average advance towards the purchase of private or Native land was £1659; the average adyance for the purchase of stock and for improvements was £.626 on settlement land and £289 on private land; while the average, advance towards the purchase or erection of'town; dwellings wa3 £722.