FARMS WANTED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 82, Issue 25214, 29 May 1945, Page 6

FARMS WANTED

SETTLING SOLDIERS OWNERS LOATH TO SELL (0.C.) NEW PLYMOUTH, Monday Farm land that last year was deemed by the Crown to be unsuitable for the settlement of ex-servicemen is now being recommended as suitable. This was disclosed at a sitting of the Taranaki Land Sales Comfnittee at New Plymouth. The reason given the committee was th: ' ex-servicemen of today are in better health, but it is suggested by others that the change in the departmental policy has been made necessary by the lack of land offering as a result of the operation of clause ol of the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Act.

The shortage of farms suitable for servicemen's settlement in Taranaki was admitted by the Taranaki rehabilitation officer, Mr E. S. Summers, when speaking to the annual meeting of the Stratford sub-provincial executive of the Farmers' Union. He said lie was dismayed when lie found at Wellington a short time ago that more than 1000 returned men who had had their eases examined were still waiting for farms. During the hearing of an application for approval of the sale of a larm property near New Plymouth by Mr E. Dent, it was stated by Mr J. L. B. Grant, , fields inspector .for the Lands and Survey Department, that the farm had been recommended as suitable for returned servicemen. When Mr Dent asked why the land was not recommended as suitable when he bought it last year. Mr Grant said the Crown did not want to buy that class of land then, but it had since been found that there was a keen demand for it. Giving evidence on the same subject, Mr G. 11. Liardet, farm appraiser for the State Advances Corporation, said the reason for the change in view was that returned moil now applying for farms were fitter and better able to farm that type of land than those wjio returned earlier from overseas. This statement, however, is contested in other quarters.

It is claimed that it is obvious that the alleged keen demand for secondclass land is brought about solely by the fact that nothing better ik offering and that returned men, in a spirit of frustration and disappointment, are prepared to tackle farms that fall far short of what they had hoped to acquire.

MAIL FOR NAVAL MEN

ERRATIC DELIVERIES COMPLAINT FROM THE PACIFIC From Noel Chappell, X.Z. P.A. War Correspondent with the British Pacific Fleet) ON BOARD N.Z CRUISER. May 3 Although there lias been an improvement recently, there still seems to be need for a more rapid delivery of mails to this New Zealand cruiser, which is serving with the Rritish Pacific Fleet in ca trier strikes against Japanese islands.

With some exceptions it has been true to say that British mails travelling greater distances have been delivered much more quickly than New Zealand letters. British ships are constantly receiving letters only 12 or 14 days after they have been posted in Britain, but many New Zealand mails have taken more than month to reach this ship.

Letters received from the last distribution of mail included many dated only the week before, hut at the same time numbers of men have not yet seen any mail dated during March.» Thus one of the complaints%s about the irregularity of deliveries or the sequence in which letters are received. The fault may lie outside New Zealand. but if there is a valid reason for it an explanation should he given to the relatives and men concerned.

ONE-WHEEL LANDING FLEET AIR ARM PLANE PILOT'S SKILFUL OPERATION (From Noel Chappell, N.Z.P.A. War Correspondent with the British Pacific Fleet) ABOARD N.Z. CRUISER, May 20 A breath-taking landing on a carrier was made toward dusk tonight by the pilot of an Avenger. When approaching the fleet from a strike against Sakishima Islands, he found he could get only one wheel down. To draw up this wheel and "belly" land on the flightdeck would almost certainly have killed the gunner in the turret beneath the aircraft.

The pilot first tried to jerk the refractory wheel down b.v a power dive' from a great height to a few hundred feet and then to pull the aircraft up again suddenly. When this failed the only course left was to land with one wheel.

While the anxious eyes of thousands of officers and men watched him he circled his ship several times, steadied, lost height and landed on the carrier. He did an extraordinarily delicate task so magnificently that the Avenger was stopped hv the first arrester wire, and .then gently tilted over on a wing. Not even a puff of smoke or a flash of flame resulted from the landing and nobody was injured.

WEAVERS' DISPUTE

COMMISSIONER'S FINDING

DECISION FAVOURS WORKERS i P.A.) CH ItISTCHURCH, Monday A decision in favour of the workers in the Kaiapoi weavers' dispute has been given by the chairman of the emergency disputes committee, Mr A. H. Rigg. who has ruled that payment to two-loom employees shall continue at the rate which came into force on Jtilv 7. 1911.

A disputes committee set up under the strike and lock-out emergency regulations, 19.39, considered the case last Wednesday, and as the parties could not agree it became the responsibility of the chairman, Mr Rigg, who is a conciliation commissioner, to give his decision

In his decision, Mr Bigg, referring to the origin of the dispute, explained that it related to the deduction some time in December last by the Kaia'poi company under clause 7 (h) of the award of 15 per cent from the earnings of weavers operating two looms. That deduction had not been made between July 7, 1941, and the time first mentioned, but was made before July 7, 1941, at which date shift work was instituted to enable additional production to be obtained for war purposes. In December, 1914. shift work in the weaving department ceased and the 15 per cent deduction was resumed by the company.

"After full consideration I have come t<> the conclusion that the alteration wit limit the workers' consent of contracts <>l service, under which thc.v have I'iivii working since July, 1941. is not in accordance with the law," said Mr Bigg. "As I see it, a cojitract of service may be altered only with the concurrence of the worker or may be terminated in accordance with the law and a fresh contract entered into. In connection with the question of terminating the contract of service. I may say that such step would no doubt be subject to the requirements of the industrial manpower emergency regulations. Mv decision, therefore, is that payment to the weavers concerned in this dispute shall be continued at the rate which commenced to operate on luly 7. 1911."