SOLDIER SETTLERS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22467, 30 July 1938, Page 5

SOLDIER SETTLERS

SUGGESTED PLANS FOR REHABILITATION REPORT OF COMMITTEE DISCUSSED (PHESS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) WELLINGTON, July 29. Suggestions for the rehabilitation of soldier settlers were placed before the Returned Soldiers’ Association conference to-day. The suggestions were embodied in a report made by a special committee after an investigation covering the Dominion. The committee stated that the association reasserted that in any matters affecting land settlement, generally, those men who were settled under Discharged Soldiers’ Settlements Acts should bfe considered as a separate special section. It was submitted that all returned soldiers under the act should be divided into the following categories:— (1) Those soldier settlers who are regarded as now in a position to be considered as ordinary Crown tenant or civilian borrowers, and who it was fair to assume would need no more help from the Crown. (2) Those cases included in classes in which it was possible by means of the reasonable adjustment of capital and/or interest and rental charges to have included in class 1. (3) Those soldier settlers who through their location, the size of their holding, the quality of their land, or any other reason were not on economic units. (4) Those soldier settlers who, as a result of their war service or the present state of their health, could not compete with fit men in either work on or the management of their properties. The committee suggested action which should be taken to deal with the various categories. It recommended that a small committee be set up by the Dominion council, and that permission be obtained from the Ministers concerned to confer with departmental heads as to details of proposals. It also recommended that in the case of the death of a soldier settler his widow be treated in all respects as though she was a soldier settler. ' The committee’s report was adopted.