NEW ZEALAND R.S.A.

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 224, 9 June 1923, Page 11

NEW ZEALAND R.S.A.

CONFERENCE DECISIONS FARMING POLICY Bx Telegraph.—Press Association. Auckland, June 8. Tlie Dominion conference of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association was continued to-day. It adopted a recommendation by the Land Committee that as a general principle in farming policy the following points i be emphasised:—“That soldier settlers have undertaken obligations to the country and are now asking concessions. We therefore consider, as the first and guiding principle, that every soldier settler is morally bound to make an earnest endeavour to carry out these obligations to the very best of his ability, so that the highest confidence mav exist between the soldier settler and his common landlord, the Crown. That by so doing the interests of the State and therefore the general public are being conserved as far as possible. We appreciate the fact that the Government has now recognised the desirability of giving effect to the recommendations of the Returned Soldiers’ Association, but would stress the necessity of expediting and giving effect to the Land Revision Committee’s report.” The conference then considered remits. Ono advocating an increase m the amount of the advance to soldiers on titree, gorse, or blackberry lands, from £750 to £lOOO, was adopted. The conference reaffirmed its request for revaluation of soldier settlers’ land when this course/ is shown to be necessary by the Land Revision Boa rd. The' conference approved a suggestion that the number of members of land boards elected by Crown tenants be increased from one to two, in view of. the increase in the number of such' tenants. It was. decided to ask the Government to institute such legislation as mav be advisable to protect returned soldiers from hardships at the expiration of the moratorium, m cases where properties have been purchased without Government assistance. In view of the fact that there are a number of discharged soldiers still to be repatriated and extensive schemes are likely to be mooted in the near future for the settlement of Imperial immigrants, the conference adopted a remit by the Canterbury Association to the effect that the Government be urged that where pastoral leases, etc., become available through the expiration of leases, the land be thrown open for selectio nby discharged New Zealand soldiers under the Discharged Soldiers’ Settlement Act.