SETTLEMENT OF SERVICEMEN

Press, Volume XCII, Issue 27735, 12 August 1955, Page 12

SETTLEMENT OF SERVICEMEN

“STILL THE MAJOR PROBLEM ” REHABILITATION BOARD REPORT (New Zeatana Press Association) WELLINGTON, August 11. Land settlement is still the major problem in the rehabilitation of former servicemen, says the Rehabilitation Board in its annual report, tabled in the House of Representatives today. The board says it has intensified its efforts to satisfy the demand from those whose true rehabilitation lies in settlement on the land. In other major spheres, however, the end of the initial work of rehabilitation of former servicemen of World War H is in sight, adds the report. This applies particularly to establishment in business and to State rental housing. Mainly because of the generally buoyant economic conditions in the Dominion, post-settlement problems of former servicemen have not been numerous. In those cases that have arisen the board’s present machinery has been found to be adequate. The number of former servicemen graded “A” and awaiting settlement at March 31 last, was 1464. “The decline in settlement achievement has in the main been a resuit of the continuing high prices, particularly in sheep properties,” the report says. ‘"This has resulted in many suitable properties being lost to former servicemen who did not have the finance to complete the purchase. The board has always recognised that the major avenue of settlement must be by the acquisition of single-unit properties by former servicemen negotiating privately, as the amount of land available through the Land Settlement Board, though substantial, has been, and is, sufficient to meet the requirements, of the minorities only. 1 ’