BACK BLOCKS SETTLERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14924, 23 February 1912, Page 5

BACK BLOCKS SETTLERS.

SEEK ADVANCES IN VAIN.

CLAIMS URGED BY MR. WILSON. [BY TELEGRAPH.SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ] Wellington, Thursday. With a plea on behalf of small settlers, Mr. C. K. Wilson, the new member for Taumarunui. introduced himself to the House of Representatives tills afternoon. Upon the presentation of a return a debate arose regarding the refusal of the ' Stateguaranteed Advances Office to make advances to settlers and to workers in bush townships, and several members urged that the bush districts should bo relieved from this handicap.

"There are many settlers in this country," said Mr. Wilson, "who are endeavouring to obtain small advances from the State, but their applications are refused without any reason. These people are not in a position to visit the cities and urge their claims, and the result is that their applications are being refused daily, though they offer good security. They aro working at all times at high, tension to bring their holdings to a successful issue financially, and any assistance which can be given to them, even if the State takes a small risk, will, I have no doubt, bo repaid in the final clearing up." The matter was brought under discussion by Mr. G. Laurenson (Lyttelton), who urged that the rule under which advances were refused in bush districts should be abandoned. It seemed to him that the assistance was withheld because the Advances Board considered that the security offered would not last beyond the life of the timber industry. As a matter of fact, the timber country had a great future before it, as dairying and agricultural land.

Hon. T. Mackenzie (Minister for Agriculture) said that lie had no desire to reflect upon the officers of the Department, but in his opinion there was no justification for the presumption that bush townships would decay with the exhaustion of the timber like a worked-out mining town. Hon. It. McKenzie (Minister for Public Works) contended that settlers in bush districts ought to be rather more encouraged than settlers in open country. The Prime Minister promised that an inquiry would be made regarding the matter.