SOLDIER SETTLERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18153, 27 July 1922, Page 9

SOLDIER SETTLERS.

TREATMENT BY STATE.

PRAISE FOR GOVERNMENT.

OASES OF HARDSHIP.

[BY TELEGRAPH. PRESS ASSOCIATION.]

WELLINGTON, Wednesday.

The position of returned soldiers on the land was discussed at to-night's sitting of the Farmers' Union Conference, when the matter was brought up by notice of motion from Mr. F. Colbeck (Auckland). He said that a number of returned soldier settlors in his district had approached him and had asked what the Farmers' Cnion intended to do to assist them. " They think it is up to the union," he said, "to give- a lead in the matter. I think so too." Many men, after returning from the war, had met with disaster on the land. Some had taken up land at too high a figure and others had been placed on unsuitable land. In his district these were the principal causes of the trouble. Ho thought a small commission should be set up in each district to deal with the position of each soldier on the merits of his case.

The president, Mr. W. J. Poison, said ho was satisfied the returned men in New Zetland had had better treatment than any returned men anywhere else in the world. He was astonished to find what a large percentage were actually going quite well in spite of the slump, and holding their own. In nearly every case of distress he had come across, the settler had bought his land privately. The number of forfeitures of land, he said, had not increased abnormally in New Zealand.

Mr. J. Bitchener, M.P. (South Canterbury), said practically all the failures in his district might hare been avoided if local advice had been secured.

After further discussion the conference carried the following motion : —" That this conference congratulates the Government upon the good treatment that returned men have received at its hands. We also desire to place on record our admiration of the way the majority of returned men have made good under adverse circumstances, and request the Government to set up a small commission to go into individual cases of hardship, with a view to their removal, such commission to be assisted by local committees."