WANTED: FARMS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 147, 23 June 1945, Page 4

WANTED: FARMS

MEN AWAIT BALLOT

REHABILITATION IMPASSE

By 4.

Uneasiness about the future—not their ability to make good, but their prospects Of obtaining a farm without a long, tiresome delay. That is the principal feeling disclosed in conversations with ex' Servicemen students taking the rehabilitation courses at Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North.

Already a number of them who have completed courses still await the ballot for land; others have drawn successfully in the ballot, but still await the land. In the peaceful, sylvan environment of the college they have drawn strength and inspiration after the strains and stresses of war. Some still receive treatment for war injuries. Their physical wounds healed, their frayed nerves steadied and their mental outlook reorientated to civilian life, they leave Massey College like giants refreshed. But the blight of uncertainty and indecision because they cannot go straight to their holdings comes as an anti-climax.

Some are luckier than others. Should luck be a factor in settling on the land a young farmer who has served his country in foreign climes for a period of years and is noff ready, willing and able to take his place in the food production drive? Not Enough Land Offered Blame for the existing bottlenecks should-not be readily laid at anyone's door. Inquiries in the Manawatu district show that every effort is being made by Government officers and farmers' organisations to get more land, but the simple truth is that there is not enough on offer. A watchful eye is being kept on absentee owners to ascertain whether they have areas suitable for disposal and committees everywhere are devoting much time, thought and trouble to *the task; of making farmsavailable to the Rehabilitation Department.

Compulsory acquisition of properties sounds an easy solution, but here there are legal as well as moral barriers, especially where titles and trust estates are involved.

Close attention is being paid to the development of unimproved or partly improved blocks for subdivision, but shortage of housing materials and manures often seals off progress in this direction. Some relief has been effected by the use of army huts, with the understanding that the placed men may have access to loans for building later.

According to the latest information between 200 and 400 farms are available for ballot this year throughout the country, but the number likely to be occupied by returned men depends largely on adequate supplies of building material, certain agricultural machinery and water piping. As an illustration of the heart-breaking experiences of those charged with settling the men, in one district only five, of 22 estates were capable of negotiation. So far about 700 servicemen have taken up farms, and if sales were normal the number would range between 300 and 500 a year.

Success Jeopardised Since there is no legislation to compel the acquisition of property unless it can be subdivided into two or more economic units, much depends on the wisdom and judgment of those who decide how <*nany economic units a block contains. Every care is taken to ensure that properties acquired constitute a safe economic unit. Incidentally, irrespective of what is paid for an economic unit with a house, the price of the farm is assessed on its productive value.

Although the training scheme at Massey College can rightly be termed 100 per cent successful, assisted as it is by the preliminary ground work of the Education and Rehabilitation Service, the delay in actually settling the men is jeopardising the success of the plan as a whole. All that can be hoped is that the discouraging situation found to-day is only temporary and that before larger drafts of troops return from abroad a way out of the difficulty will be discovered.