SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16850, 15 May 1918, Page 6

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

FARMERS' UNION REMITS.

The matter of soldier settlement is the subject of a large number of remits from branches of the Farmers* Union to the eighteenth annual provincial conference, which opens at Auckland on Monday, May 27. All the remits protest against the Government method of purchasing large areas of highly-priced land for subdivision, when there is so much unimproved Crown land available for settlement. The Huntly West branch remit suggests that if special circumstances should necessitate the purchase of improved land for soldiers, the Government purchase the land from those farmers who are called up for military service and are thereby compelled to sell their farms. Other recommendations include the appointing of farmers' boards, in an advisory capacity, to report on suitable land for soldier settlement; the bringing into production of the virgin Crown lands of the Dominion either by giving employment to returned soldiers under experienced supervisors or by utilising alien labour at soldiers' rates of pay; and placing the interests of returned soldiers who are lessees of native lands on a basis similar to that of soldiers who are lessees of Crown lands. The suggestion is also made that in the event of the Government taking up a block of land for soldier settlement the State should farm the property for a period with soldier labour, and "if proved suitable for soldier settlement the land should be offered first to the soldiers who have been employed in developing it.