SOLDIERS’ LAND.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 6 August 1924, Page 6

SOLDIERS’ LAND.

MR. MASTERS 7 CHARGES. REJOINDER BY -MINISTER. Some plain comment was indulged in by the new Minister of Lauds in the House of Representatives in reply to suggestions of faulty administration of soldier settlement by the Government (states the Taranaki Herald’s correspondent).

Mr E. Masters dealt with a statement bv the Reform member for Egmonfc (Mr O’. J. • Ha-wken)' that the Government had spent- £16,000,000 on soldier settlement.

The Reparoa settlement-, said Mr Masters, was 29,318 acres, for which the purchase money was £96,675. Of that amount 17,000 acres liad been handed over to the Forestry Department for afforestation purposes. The Government could not expect to pay £3 10s a'n acre for soldier settlement and then use it for afforestation. The Balfour-Kinnear settlement, in the Motueka- district, and the Walker estate, in the same- electorate, were jointly purchased for £65,000, and in addition £SOOO had been spent in surveying and cutting up into thirteen sections. Although purchased in 1918, there had -not'been a single applicant for the- land in either settlement up to the present day. It was reduced by £SOOO in 1922, put up for selection again, and once again tiiere were ho applicants. The interest on a basis of 4;)- peY cent on the capital expenditure now aggregated 1 £ 1.8,900. Was it any wonder, lie asked, that the discharged soldier stttlemeiit account could not meet its obligations to the consolidated fund? The Tawhi settlement, in the Taranaki district, was, said Mr Masters, 30lii> acre's aful the purchase price £3-1,177. survey charges bringing the tquii cost, up to £42,810. To-day 2289 acres had been leased to a cattle dealer for grazing purposes at a nominal rental of 2s ah acre, instead of 12s eh acre on the basis of the purchase price at which it wni-yrhfered to the soldiers. Soldier settlers had petitioned the Minister against the remaining portion of the settifemeht being used for that purpose, as it was inimical to their interests aiid likely to bring disease into their stock. He regretted that the Miiiister had turned a deaf ear to their request. In another county with which tile member for Egmont was familiar there were 15,000 acres of abandoned soldier settlement land purchased for £IOO,000, land that was now a breeding place for weeds, second growth and wild pigs. Who, asked Mr Masters, got the money for these sections? The men who sold them, or the soldiers? The Minuter of Lands (the Hon. A. D. HeLeod) referred to the general criticism of the Government in purchasing land for soldier settlement made t by the member for Stratford. “Although I have not had the opportunity of inspecting the land,’’ said the Minister, referring to Reparoa, “1 firmly believe that the loss in connection with such land will eventually be very small, and 1 have here- the report of the comriiittee which dealt with the property.'’ In 17 cases the original capital had been reduced by over £MJUO, and so far no appeals had been received against the decisions. The board had taken the district board’s figures in every case. In four of the cases the settlers were actually in credit, which reflected also very creditably on the fiien. There were still in the Reparoa estate 31,400 acies ivliich, at a very conservative estimate, wore worth £lO per acre, and indeed could be sold at that it" it were put on the market. Tiiat disposed of the objections of the member for Stratford in regard to soldiers’ land aii'd Remtroa in particular.

Mr Masters : Does it ? Mr McLeod said that so far a y s the whole of the purchases of soldier land were concerned Mr Masters had suggested that they liad been fnad© primarily for the purpose of fattening,the Reform Party, and that the soldiers were only a secondary consideration, but if there was anything despicable it was the mind of the man who ascribed a sinister ni’otive to everything that was done. The Minister said that if he were- of that mind he could deal with land not only purchased by the present administration, but also that purchased by the old Liberal regime in the Hutt- Valley in 1903 and in 1905, wliiclv. up to 1922, showed a loss to the country of £120,000. As for the land purchases in Taranaki (lie did not profess to know a great deal about that), Mr Masters had gone out of his way to blacken the member for Egmont by inferring that it was the friends of that member who were fattened as a result of the purchase. “I would be ashamed to make such statements,” stated the Minister. In conclusion, lie quoted the following extract from the inquiry board dealing with land purchase in Taranaki : “The way the Lands Department lias administered this great scheme in the face- of the most difficult times experienced by the men in business for many years is a credit to the officers of th© department. W© find that they have treated all cases sympathetically, and that, in spite of thentrials, the majority of the soldier settlers realise this fully. ’