SOLDIERS' 28 MILLIONS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 129, 3 June 1922, Page 4

SOLDIERS' 28 MILLIONS

The Prime Minister states that over 28 millions has been expended for/the benefit of returned soldiers. One quarter of this (£7,747,318) was advanced for the " purchase or erection "■■ (mostly, we fear, the purchase) of town dwellings. Probably the bulk of the £2,197,956, constituting ■" loans for business, etc., and other financial assistance," was also invested in towns. The balance, £18,496,043, seems to have found rural investment. Fourteen millions of it is in land; of this amount, nearly six millions was expended under the Land. for Settlements Act, nearly seven millions was advanced for the purchase of private ,or Native lands, and £1,618,939 was paid to Crown lessees for their'improvements and goodwill. The balance of this eighteen ' millions—to 'which rural land prices partly owe their inflationis found in nearly four millions advanced for purchase of stock, and £433,000 advanced for discharge of mortgages. The expenditure is definite enough; the value of the asset not so definite. When values become stable, there will necessarily be revaluation in many cases. The difficulty then will be to prevent a relief extended to the needy from being extorted—under political pressure—by' the greedy. Politicians who profess to regard differential taxation as "charity" will surely find it hard to reconcile their sensitive souls to differential revaluations. v '