SETTLING RETURNED SOLDIERS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 123, 17 February 1921, Page 2

SETTLING RETURNED SOLDIERS

A DIFFICULT TASK. The Hou. D. H. Guthrie, Minister of Lands, was present at the smoke concert given in connection with the Masterton Show on Tuesday night, and m response to the toast, had* 5 been made some remarks on what had done in the repatriation of soldiers. He. pointed out that JL patriation Department had on its books the names of 78,000 returned men Of this number 8661 had been P lac ® d the land. With such a difficult task as repatriating such a number of men, it was impossible to avoid some mis takes, but every possible care had been taken to prevent these. The c^ Te . r °' r? h t ad J’ ee ; r b X ed bu°t b-“* SVarere th£ the -he, had been put on the higher-priced lands had been t'he most kne 3 ° o n acZ n had taken off Inst rear In adminrstenng the DeiartmeX they had sought the aid and E of residents in the various locaL • Kzve llieTr assistance naci oeen mort rateable. He could not dispute ttie fact that in, some, cases lanH had been purchased in tne ear stages but the local information gained W prevented this being done of late. The people of the Wairarapa had renJertd valuable assistance, and had loyX listed the Department with adrice and in other ways, and he Zublidy K> lhank them <foin* o The present was a period of stringency, but he felt sure Hint hre would won pass away, and that tm g Zould again settle down to normal.