The Hawera Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1928. SOLDIER SETTLEMENTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 17 March 1928, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1928. SOLDIER SETTLEMENTS.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’olook in Hawera. Mauam, Normanby. Okaiawa, Eltham. Mangatoki, Kaponga, Hurleyville Patea, Waverley, Mokoia, Whakamara, Ohangai, Meremere. Fraser Road, and Ararata.

The frank statement regarding soldier settlements made .by the Hon. A. D. McLeod, (Minister of Lands, in Canterbury this week, is of special interest, coming as it does in the early part of the year set aside • for the General Election. Mr McLeod announced for the first time the position of the country in regard to the Discharged Soldiers’ .Settlement Act; that announcement, though it would have been more comforting had it revealed a profit instead of a dead loss of £5,000,000, has hone the less a note of reassurance. •The country now knows where it is in regard to the financing of soldiers ’ farms; everybody, including the Government ’s opponents, now knows the worst and a good deal of ground Was been, in consequence, cut from under the feet of the Government’s critics. That the Government has found it necessary to write off a large amount representing capital invested 'in soldiers’ settlements and interest thereon, will surprise nobody. It has been long obvious that, the question would have to be faced some day, but it. is to the credit of the Government that it, has faced it squarely in its own day and at a time when lesser men might, not have been considered it. good party tactics to deal so frankly with the people. The D.;S.:S. Act. was not many years old before it became evident that the legislation did not represent, the best that could have been done had we had previous experience of repatriation of large numbers of troops following a world war to guide us. But neither the people nor the Government had had that experience and in consequence there arose a popular clamour for land for soldiers. It was considered by most people the right thing to do, to provide land for the men who had made such sacrifices for their country, and it was likewise considered a wise thing that many men who had had no previous experience of agri-1 culture, but who were finding difficulty *

in facing the prospect of returning to their pre-war means of livelihood, should turn to the land as their future occupation. It avails nothing to go back over the mistakes of the past; as the Minister has said, it is easy to be wise after the event, but it is noteworthy that of all the critics who Wave arisen in the past, and in the comment which has been made during the last few days following upon Mr McLeod’s statement, no serious attempt has been made to claim that if some other Government had been in power during those troublous years, when the whole world was groping in the dark- towards reconstruction, the selfsame mistake's would not have been made. Even the die-hard Liberal journals, after availing themselves to the full of the opportunity of going over the old ground, are constrained to admit that it is better to face the position as the Government has done, and that there is consolation in the knowledge that by cutting its losses now, the Government has made it possible for many settler's to remain on their holdings, there to make their bid for an assured position under easier financial conditions and at the same time add to the productivity of the country. It can .be taken for granted, of course, that in the next election campaign an attempt will be made by the other par. ties in the field to show how mightily the Reform Party has‘erred, but a groat deal of the sting will be taken -out of such arguments for those who can visualise what would have been the result if some others had been in power at the time when the country was swept with a wave of emotionalism, optimism and a tendency to think in millions.