SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVI, Issue 17151, 3 May 1919, Page 10

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

SELECTION OF BUSH LAND.

NEED FOR PRACTICAL ADVICE.

The selection of land for settlement by returned soldiers was discussed by the committee of the Auckland branch of the Farmers' Union yesterday. One remit to tho Provincial Conference this month suggests the appointment of District Land Purchase Boards, and another asks that Farmers' Advisory Boards should bo appointed to act in conjuction with the Government officers.

Mr, John Allen said he would not support the representation of Farmers' Unions and agricultural societies on such boards. The men most competent to select land for tho soldiers wero the practical farmers in the back blocks— successful men who had turned virgin land into productive country. It woidd pay the Government to give these men £1000 a year for their services and see that their farms were looked after during their absence. His idea was that these men should be put in charge of gangs of returned soldiers to fall tho bush on suitable areas. When tho bush was down the engineers would decide where to put roads and railways, and the surveyors would cut the land into suitable blocks for settlement. Tho soldiers who havo worked in tho bush gangs would bo entitled to first choico of the sections. The remits on tho subject were supported.