GIVEN EVERY CHANCE

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 45, 16 November 1929, Page 12

GIVEN EVERY CHANCE

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT AN INTERESTING SURVEY Dominion Special Service. Auckland, November 15. Land settlement offers a solution of the difficulty in only a few of the cases of distress among ex-servicemen which it is the purpose of the Returned Soldiers’ Rehabilitation Commission to relieve by evolving some broad scheme. The chairman (Mr. J. 8. Barton, S.M.) expressed this view after hearing evidence of the Crown Lands Commissioner, which he regarded as highly important. „ “The Government has done a lot, said Mr. Barton, commenting on this evidence. It was all very well to criticise, but much of the criticism of discharged soldier settlement was only being wise after the event. . z, Sir John Luke, a member of the Commission, remarked that New Zealand, through its people and its Government, had done well. Interesting Views. Mr. O. N. Campbell, Crown Lands Commissioner for North Auckland, extending from North Cape to Mercer, who is himself a returned soldier, summed up his views on the question as follows: — “The responsibility and hard work necessary for land ownership is too much for the war-worn or disabled soldier. Ine returned soldier whose desire was to settle on land and who possessed the necessary strength and ability has already been repatriated under the discharged soldiers’ settlement scheme. The New Zealander is temperamentally unsuited for any form of community settlement. “I have naturally been in close touch with the settlement of returned soldiers on the land,” said Mr. Campbell. In my district 5000 returned soldiers have been financed into properties, either houses or farms, and no returned soldier, whether financial or otherwise, has been refused assistance in securing land provided the Department could see some little prospect' of success for him. Advances up to 100 per cent, of value had been made to purchase these properties, and in the case of farms, advances for development and stocking purposes have likewise been made, even up to 100 per cent, of the value of improvements or stock where it was considered necessary in the interests of the soldier to _ do so. The expenditure on this work in this district has exceeded £5,000,000. It will thus be seen that all the returned men have already had ample opportunity of settling on the land. Government’s Help. “No man who was a trier and at all suitable was knowingly deprived of his farm,” said Mr. Campbell. “The Government carried the responsibility for finance to-day. They had a fine body of soldier settlers who were in most cases well established and in practically every instance were on a sound financial basis with every prospect of success. “Farming is becoming more and more a science, requiring ability and energy, and unless a settler possesses those qualifications he is doomed to failure,” said Mr. Campbell. “It is not a weak man’s occupation, and I can see little prospect of successfully settling the pensioned soldier on the land. He has to enter into open competition with his fit and able neighbour, who probably owns the freehold of his land, and I am not in any way discrediting the pensioned soldier when I say that his chances of success would not be over-bright. We have nevertheless numerous pensioned soldiers among our successful settlers. These men, however, have other qualifications or attributed which in some way or other help them to overcome their war disabilities. Soldier partnerships in 95 per cent of cases have proved an utter failure, and I am inclined to the opinion that the New Zealand soldier is not temperamentally fitted for any scheme of community farming. All the necessary legislation to meet practically any scheme of ’soldier settlement is on the Statute Book to-day.”