SOLDIERS AND LAND

New Zealand Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 10632, 3 July 1920, Page 7

SOLDIERS AND LAND

A MINISTER’S DENIAL. INCIDENT IN THE HOUSE. In the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon Mr S. G. Smith (Taranaki) asked tho Minister for Education if his attention had been drawn to a newspaper report of a New Plymouth meeting in connection with the tapering off of funds for returned soldiers, at which C&ptain W. F. Hawkins had declared that in his opinion in purchasing land for soldier-settlement the Government had been more concerned about conserving the interests of its supporters than about the interests of tho soldiers. Tho Prime Minister: Is this in order, sir? The Speaker stated that ho had not quite caught what was read, but no upon a Minister would bo in order. Mr Smith said that what he wished particularly to draw the attention of the Minister to,- was a statement in regard to an estate purchased in 19-16, on which 17 soldiers had been settled, and these men were now being sued for rates by the county council. In 1916 tho unimproved value of the estate was £19,000 and the capital value £14,000. The Government had paid £BI,OOO for the estate and had spent on it another. £7OOO, thus making the total loading on the soldiers £BB,OOO. f,ow tho unimproved value had been increased to £38,000,_ an increase l of 100 per cent., whereas tho unimproved values of adjoining big owners had only been raised by 36 pen cent. The Hon. B. H. Guthrie said that he could not bo expected to reply offhand to every absurd statement that was' published. There was absolutely no foundation in fact, he declared, for the statement that had just been read out. Tho £7OOO, for example, should be £700; and there were other discrepancies. Tho hon. member had called his secretary’s attention to the matter that morning, but he (the Minister) had not yet had time to go fully into it. He asked the -hon. member to put the question on tho Order Paper and ho would then have a fuM refutation of • tho statement made in the report. (Hear, hear.)