SOLDIER SETTLEMENT SCHEME

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 279, 14 August 1918, Page 6

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT SCHEME

« GENERALLY A SUCCESS OFFICIAL FIGURES Beports are circulated from time to time to the effect that soldiers are not making a success of farming when they go on to Government holdings under tho land settlement scheme. This is not at all the state of affairs generally in regard to returned soldiers' settlements. An official return has just been supplied by the Department to the Minister in Charge (the Hon. D. H. Guthrie), and this return shows that the great majority of the soldier-settlers have been doing very well. There have been failures and forfeitures, but some of them have been through no fault of the Government. In the return the causes of forfeiture have been stated in every case, and very often the reasons given are such as these; "Changed circumstances," "dishonest practices," and "dishonest and unreliable," "doubtful of ability to succeed," "inability to find deposit." Much more rarely tho cause shown is "land failed to come up to expectations." As to the reports as to hr.w the settlers remaining on their holdings are fai'ing it appears that most of them are "shaping well" or "fairly." In view of the number of men who are taking up this land .with but little farming experience, or with no previous experience as owners of a property, the percentage of failures recorded up till the present is low. In Auckland one hundred sections have been selected, and twenty-six are unselecled. There have been three forfeitures in tho district, all on the one settlement. In Hawke's Bay all the' sections offered have been selected, and thero have been no forfeitures. In Taranaki sixteen sections have been selected, and two have not been taken up. Thero have been two forfeitures. In Wellington there have heen.los sections taken up, and one remains unselected, but there have been 1 twenty-nine forfeitures, very few of them for reasons which could have l>een foreseen by the Government. In Marlboorngh six sections have been selected, and thero are six remaining, including one that has been forfeited. In Nelson only one piece of .land has been purchased, and it has not yet been offered. In Canterbury thirty-threo sections have been selected, there are twelve remaining, and one has been forfeited—for domestic reasons. In Otago thero liavo been' nine sections settled, and thero are thirty-five unsettied, but it appears that at least twenty of them have not yet been on the market. In Southland there aro ten sections occupied, and four unselccted.