LAND FOR SOLDIERS

Evening Post, Volume XCII, Issue 74, 25 September 1916, Page 8

LAND FOR SOLDIERS

At the function connected with the unveiling of the foundation-stone of the Soldiers' Memorial Hall at Darfield on Saturday, the Hon. G. W. Russell pointed out that a.man taking up 200 or 300 acres, unless he had capital at the start would, by the time he fenced and stocked his farm and . built his steading, b6 loaded with £2000 or £5000. He believed Darfield started as one of the settlements under the Village Settlement Scheme, and that scheme, he thought, was especially applicable to, returned soldiers. Either the late Mr. Percy Smith or the late Mr. J. E. March had laid down three essentials for the success of such settlements—(l) The land must be good, (2) the settlement must be accessible to a market; and (3) a reasonable amount of work must be available for the village settlers at certain periods of the year. It appeared to him that Darfield and district possessed ideal conditions for such a settlement. If the chairman of the Hall Committee would lay before him a concrete proposal in regard to this matter, he would bring it before the War Funds Council and give it his most careful consideration. The War Funds Council held at present about £20,000, and he thought if Mr. Knight placed a scheme before him as suggested, he could promise that the Council would be prepared to give a subsidy to establish the first returned soldiers' village settlement in Darfield. (Applause.) He assured them that any concrete scheme submitted would . receive careful consideration, and he thought he could promise, on behalf of the War Funds Council, that it would assist the soldiers in making a start.