SOLDIER SETTLEMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21141, 26 March 1932, Page 9

SOLDIER SETTLEMENTS.

I _ - LOSSES IN VICTORIA. | EFFORT TO STEM DRIFT. 1 ' i [pnOM OUE OWN CORRESPONDENT. J MELBOURNE, March IT. ! An all partv conference began in MillI mere last week to consider the serious j drift in soldier settlement finance in Yic- ! toria. During the past eight years there has been an annual loss of about £1,000.000 on the soldier settlement scheme. Ihe situation lias drifted from bad to worse and, with the prevailing low prices for products, it is recognised that the burden on the taxpayers will be increased if radical changes in policy are not brought, i about. J In his Budget speech the Premier and Treasurer, Mr. Hogan. pointed out that ! for the last eight- or nine years, whether the seasons were good or bad, or whether prices were high or low, soldier settlement alone had involved the colossal loss of £l, COO, COO a year. Of the 6000 odd soldiers remaining on the land more than 500 of them, were 100 per cent, in arrears. These settlers had never paid anything" to the State, although they had been in possession of blocks from seven to nine years. It is computed that each soldier settler is costing the Government £166 a year, or more than £3 a week. Altogether the settlers owe the State £3,C00,0C0, made up of interest arrears and unpaid instalments on principal. The Minister of Bailey, said his object in calling tTie All-Party Conference was to endeavour (o devise a scheme that would place soldier settlement on a more satisfactory oasis. -ft should not be the "cock-shv" of politics. Conferences of soldier settlers liJ\o urged that there should be revaluations of every block by a competent valuer on the bfisis of the productive value of the land. . , . Thev also desired that the interest rate should be assessed annually according to prevailing economic conditions and on the basis of a fair average standard of management, provision to be made for■ » reasonable living wage as the fust <.h-i-M> on farm income, and payments ot instalments on principal as the t>9 estimated balance remaining to j.eteim.n» the interest rate for that year.