LAND SETTLEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 25895, 12 September 1946, Page 10

LAND SETTLEMENT

SERVICEMEN'S DEMANDS DISCUSSED R.S.A/S INTEREST IN REHABILITATION Over 50 delegates from branches of the Otago Returned Services’ Association and from Invercargill, Gore, and Oamaru Associations discussed matters affecting the settlement of returned servicemen on the land at a conference yesterday. The complaints lodged by various speakers were, referred last night to the Assistant Director of Rehabilitation, Mr M. Sullivan, and to (Mr W. D. Armitt, who is also a member of the Lands Settlement Board. The Otago district vice-president of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association, Mr W. E. Earnshaw, presided at the conference. Mr Sullivan said he had hoped there would have been more general suggestions from the conference, and that his department would be pleased- to receive specific information on individual complaints. The Rehabilitation Board had laid down a definite policy, and the State Advances Corporation was doing an amazingly good job for it, quite dispassionately. In the past month the corporation had handled over 230 cases, involving £1,800,000, doing - the field and administration work, and it could be proud of its efforts. ,

. Dealing with the complaint that the time taken to to settle men on the land was tob long, and that the whole organisation was too slow, he said that, judged by normal standards, the time taken was too long,, but this was due mainly to the volume of the work. Two thousand six hundred men had now been settled on the land, and it was just a year since hostilities had ceased. The State Advances Corporation had done a lot of work in financing men into farms that they had found for themselves. (Regarding the suggestion that there was a lack of coordination between the Rehabilitation Department and its agents, the Lauds and Survey Department and the State Advances Corporation, Mr Sullivan said it was largely a. machinery matter, but he would not say that his department was the “ small boy ” of the family. The department had no experts of its own to do the work, but had to rely on the advice given hy the other two departments. Referring to the suggestion regarding the farming of Crown lands, Mr Sullivan said that the department was as keen as anyone to put men on the land, and was prepared to do so on a wage basis where the land was not considered ready for their reception individually. The question of priorities for. age and service groups was one which might react unfavourably on other groups, he said. There had been no discrimination among applicants up to the present. The Rehabilitation Board was prepared to consider the settlement ot farms not at present economic, if they could, be made so in three or four years, and in certain cases some men were working small units economically and wore also working around their own district. “ Too much time is being taken at present because there is too much to do,” Mr Sullivan added. He said that the conference would be helping returned men more if they were not so inclined to criticise the State Advances Corporation as the lending agent of the Rehabilitation Department. If the confidence of the servicemen in the corporation were to be upset, a disservice would be done.

■GOVERNMENT POLICY

The land purchase inspector, Mr Armitt, said that as a member of the Land Settlement Board he felt that settlement was not getting as far ahead as it could be. Much time was being taken up by the hearing of the evidence of valuers by the Land Sales Committees. He said the State was not anxious to hold the land. It had already purchased 6,828 acres in Otago, of which it had allotted 13 of 19 units, and six men were working the others on a wage basis. The department was acquiring 22,807 acres, which were expected to yield a further 39 units, and it was negotiating for 23,000 acres. In Southland it had bought 10,806 acres, comprising 30 units, of which seven had been allotted, and 23 men were working on the others for wages. The department had acquired and was developing 11,921 acres, or 32 units, and was negotiating for a further 90,000 acres, or about 100 units. “ At present the policy of the Government is to give men land that will work,” he added. “ Land is not becoming readily available, but we feel that we will now have to take more advantage of the provisions of the Land Sales Act.” He added that men who were anxious to go into properties should go on to the land for wages and help the State to develop it. A number of tractors had been received that would now do considerable work.