REPATRIATION SCHEMES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 1016, 19 November 1917, Page 7

REPATRIATION SCHEMES.

SOLDIERS AND LAND SETTLEMENT. (Fra Pmtes Association ' A CCKLAND, Nov. 17. Several matters relating to Lite settlement of. returned soldiers on Hie land were brought belore Mr Massey by a deputation from the Returned Soldiers’ Association. The chief object ol the deputation was to bring lorward complaints rgarding the quality and the valuation of some of the .sections occupied by the soldiers on Reynolds’ Estate near Cambridge. Mr Massey said if a soldier got on a section on which he lonnd lie could not make a living, the only thing to do was to endeavour to put him on something better. “We are not going to hind them down to these sections. added the Premier. He understood that Reynolds’ Estate was purchased just at the inception of the scheme to settle soldiers, and it was then very doubtlnl whether soldiers would take up the sections, which was the reason why some of them were set apart lor ordinary settlement. The deputation replied that the trouble was Unit the best sections were set apart for ordinary settlers. Mr Skeot, Crown Lands Commissioner, said the Land Board had arranged to inspect the settlement next week. Some of the sections required a great deal of development. The price they were valued at ranged from below £l4 up to £36 per acre. The Prime Minister explained that on , the whole, the soldier settlement scheme had proved very successful. There were at present 541 soldiers on' the land, while about 40 had failed for one reason and another, He thought there were more difficulties in the way of putting settlers on the land in the Auckland province than in some other parts oi Now Zealand, because in many other places there was more natural feed on the land. For that reason lie thought that many of ihe soldiers wore right in selecting sheep farms rather than dairy country. The deputation assured the Premier that there was a keen and growing desire on the part of returned soldiers to go on the land. Air Massey assured the deputation that the Government and the Lands Department wore out to hoi]) the men in every possible way, and to remedy any just grievances.