FARMS PURCHASED FOR SERVICEMEN

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 4

FARMS PURCHASED FOR SERVICEMEN

IMMEDIATE SETTLEMENT advocated If farms purchased for the rehabilitation of former servicemen were in a suitable condition they should be settled immediately, it was stated at a meeting yesterday of the South Canterbury Provincial Executive of Federated Farmers. Mr G. Johnston said that a farm already fenced and with three homesteads had been sold to the Crown, but its settlement was being held up because it was understood it was to be used for irrigation experiments. “We contend that three soldiers could have been settled there immediately,’’ he said, speaking for his branch (Geraldine) . At the last meeting of the Rehabilitation Committee it had been reported that there Were 140 servicemen with A grade qualifications awaiting settlement, stated Mr H. Roberts. The president (Mr R. W. L. Beattie) urged members not to be “overcritical.” A good job had been done in settling 32 servicemen in the Geraldine riding alone and 150 in South Canterbury, he said. A farm of 350 acres in the Totara Valley, while in the hands of the Crown over the last two years, had not produced as it should have done, said Mr White. It had been used to feed store cattle from Molesworth. Mr Roberts suggested that lists of farms, about which there was complaint. might be obtained from each district. The president said that any coijiplaints could be investigated.