LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 11, Issue 449, 15 October 1919, Page 4

LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

The returned soldier aad the l-_ul is the uppermost topic in politic-! and popular circles. The p-ofie Mva true desire to see that the men •*_- havo fought for their country shall have a fair deal. Are they getting it? Decidedly not. They are being called upon to pay prices for land which will he ruinous to them when the prices of produce fall. They are to be lent money which will go to land prOflt__rT§ ultimately, and they will get no satisfaction but miserable failure. Thii will be the ultimate lot of most of them. Why? Because their interests have been too long delayed. Masseyism is once again playing into the hands of the present greedy possessors of land, who are asked to kindly concede their Avorst parcels of land at war boomed prices for the alleged benefit of the soldiers. Minister Guthrie candidly admits that aggregation of land is going on. The land' owners are selling out their worst bits and buying something better. Why was action not taken two years ago, when money was to be had in millions for the asking to provide that large landholders should hand over areas at pre-war prices for the sake of the soldiers —the men who risked their lives to serve New Zealand and the Empire? Such tiddley-winking ideas as that of the "Times" that the aggregating' landowners should be called upon to place valuations On: la,nds to which they could be held to account for taxation purposes is about the easiest way of playing into their hands imaginable. They are simply silly, and nobody with any brain! could be taken in by them. -With the money the big landlords are making, a little extra taxation has no terrors to them. They want to be called upon to substantially disgorge. The most drastic measures must be taken te break up large eittalcs. Unless the soldiers get land at a reasonable price they will be reduced to the parlous condition of many of the military heroes of the past, whose lot was to die in obscurity and poverty.