LAND FOR SOLDIERS

Evening Star, Issue 16236, 4 October 1916, Page 3

LAND FOR SOLDIERS

APPEAL BY THE GOVERNMENT. Tho Government desire to acquire by purchase good land iu all districts throughout Iho Dominion, and, wherever possible, in blocks of considerable area, in order that soldier settlements may be constituted. A number of offers of small areas of good land and a less number of offers of larger areas of inferior Land have been received. All such offers have been considered, and in some cases purchases have been completed, butytho principal purpose which the Government- have in view is not served by a method of desultory pun-liases of small properties divisible into lew holdings and separated by wide distances, nor ie it possible by that method to ensure the acquisition of sufficient land in all parts of New Zealand to afford returned soldiers an opportunity of settling in or near the districts from which they enlisted. The Government hav-c therefore resolved to make a public and general request to all owners of estates to sot apart portions o£ their properties, consisting of some of the best land in each property, for settlementbvreturned soldiers, and to offer to the Government for purchase at fair prices for that purpose tho lands so set- apart. Good land in fairly largo areas divisible into a reasonable number of holdings can only bo secured bv the general consent of tho owners of large estates throughout New Zealand to sell parts of their properties, and because such sales will enable the Government to provide land for our soldiers who return from service in the war*, the Government- trust that their request will meet with a hearty response from owners. The alternative of the compulsory acquisition of the whole of £e\ crap large properties would involve an expenditure of sums not perhaps in excess of tho amount required for the purchase of parts of a much larger number of properties ; but, if that altornativo were au op red, tho areas provided for settlement would bo limited to a few districts instead of Icing spread throughout- the Dominion, and a quantity of laud would in most cases be included which, though profitable when held in largo areas, might not be miitabkfor close subdivision.