EX-SOLDIERS' LAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 230, 28 September 1935, Page 19

EX-SOLDIERS' LAND.

SETTLEMENT SCHEME.

CASH RECEIPTS INCREASE. 0 #

OPERATIONS DURING YEAR,

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Discharged Soldiers' Settlement report, presented to the House of Representatives yesterday, states that loans authorised during the year ended March 31 last numbered 574, involving a total of £59,028. Cash receipts for the year rose by £122,882. The lands set apart for selection by discharged soldiers during the year totalled 3857 acres, making a grand total of 1,452,525 acres proclaimed since the inception of the scheme. The area is made up as follows:—Ordinary Crown lands, 613,093 acres; land for settlements land, 402,544 acres; national endowment land, 433,532 acres; Cheviot Estate land, 3356 acres; total, 1,452,525 acres. Proclamations have been- issued re-' voking the setting apart of 237,733 acres of Crown and national endowment land and 103,790 acres of land for settlements land. Applications for land under the Act to the number of eight only were received during the year, compared with ten in the previous year, and the peak total of 5396 in 1920.

The Dominion Revaluation Board has made reductions in the capital value of leaseholds totalling £2,019,625, and in Crown mortgages totalling £873,366, an aggregate of £2,892,991, and remissions of instalment interest and rent aggregate £472,375. The Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Auckland district, in his report, states that the year proved to be a difficult one for the great majority of soldier settlers, and unemployment and reduced incomes also affected house mortgagors adversely, and in many cases relief had been given by arranging adjusted nmrtgages, tluis reducing annual charges substantially. I Drought and Bush Fires.

"As far as dairy farmers, are concerned," the report continued, "low prices for produce continued ty rule, and payouts for butterfat have averaged about 9d per lb. To make matters more difficult there was a prolonged drought about midsummer in all parts of the district, except the Bay of Plenty, which reduced production considerably. "Added to this, a number of settlers in the Waikato district were affected by serious peat lires, which destroyed a large area of pasture. Settlers who have concentrated on pigs as a sideline obtained satisfactory returns. "Sheep farmers again suffered through a drop in the price realised for wool, the average price being only about half what was obtained in the previous year. Those, however, with fat lambs to dispose of did "quite well at the prices ruling. ... "Most settlers,, in spite of difficult times, have made an honest endeavour within their means to meet their liabilities to the Department, and the total received by the Discharged Soldiers' Set-, tlement Account showed an increase on the previous year's receipts. _ "Many soldier settlers, owing to continued low prices of produce, have found it necessary to apply to the Land Board Vfor Relief, which has been "afforded in many deserving cases by ninussidh arid postponement of charges and also by further advances to maintain and further improve properties. To offset low prices many settlers have made an effort to increase production by herd testing and culling and by increasing their herds."