SERVICEMEN'S FARMS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 136, 10 May 1945, Page 7

SERVICEMEN'S FARMS

UNITS FOR SETTLEMENT. Thirty-one fanning units for the settlement of ex-servicemen arc to be made available by ballot toward the end'of this month, j liesc units, most of which are in the North Island, will be.allocated on a Crown leasehold basis with the assistance of the Rehabilitation Board.

On some of them, large properties which have been subdivided for the purpose of serviceman settlement, the successful applicants will be employed on the board's scale of wages in preparing the land for productive farming. When that stage has been reached they will be able to take over the leases and work the farms on their own account. In all cases only men graded "A" by their rehabilitation committees for either dairy, sheep, agricultural or mixed farming will be considered.

An alternative known as the Bryant tenure is being offered to servicemen who do not wish to enter into a straight-out renewable leasehold. This amounts to an agreement for sale and purchase under Section 16 of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1944. Jn such case the purchase price for the land shall be the total of the rental value plus the value of the improvements at the ordinary concession rate of interest to ex-servicemen, with the restriction that no transfer of the title or lease can be made without the consent of the Minister of Lands. Four of ih'o sections arc on tho NapierWairoa, highway about 31 miles north of Napier. On these the future settlers will be. required to work at tho board's rales of pay, £5 10s a week plus 10s week cost of living allowance, till the Suctions arc developed. They will then be valued, and tho applicant will havo the option of Two properties are about 23 miles from Hastings and 31 nines from Napier respectively. The former is of mare than 950 acres, graded for sheep-fanning, and the other is about 10 acroti larger, also for sheep-farming. There i 6 one property in flic Wellington Land District, at Mangawcka. It is of about 360 acres, and the. successful serviceman ,1 havo to go to tins farm on a wage basis at first.

There are nine sections, all graded for dairy-farming, in'the South Auckland district. Five of these aro part of the Matatnuku block of 22 sections in the Maiamata County. They average 150 acres, and will require development on a wage basis. This will also apply to four other units in the South Auckland district, in the Bailey Block, near Thau. There are two farms of about lC' f . acres and two of about 150 acres between Whakatanc and Opotiki. These are to be leased to men competent in mixed sheep and dairy-farming, while two further units near Opotiki are- to be balloted, both of 100 acres. , A further section is on Mangawara (Miller's) Block, about six miles from Taupiri, in tho Waikato. It is cf about 90 acres.