SETTLEMENT ON LAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25302, 12 August 1943, Page 5

SETTLEMENT ON LAND

AUSTRALIA’S RETURNED MEN

COMMISSION INVESTIGATING

(Rec. 9.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 11. Already more than 1000 New South Wales returned soldiers of this war have asked to be settled on the land. The problems of Australian soldier settlement are now being investigated by the Rural Reconstruction Commission. . , Giving evidence at the commissions Sydney sitting the New South Wales Under-secretary of Lands, Mr H. H. Guest, said settlement on the land of 9706 soldiers of the last war had cost the State Government more than £6,000,000 from 1919 to 1942. Only 4456 of these men were still on their properties. Mr Guest listed a number of reasons for failures by soldier settlers after the last war. These included personal factors (lack of fhdustry, Initiative, ability and experience): lack of intial capital; unnecessary expenditure on labour, plant, and machinery: and absence of a spur to industry by the investment of personal capital. Other contributing factors were the unsuitability of the land, adverse seasons, and prices. ■ , Mr Guest pointed out that the only qualification for land settlement required of the returned soldiers of the 1914-13 war was physical fitness. The qualifications required under future scheme should include experience of the land and financial backing. Men intending to settle on Government farms should be given preliminary training. Plans for soldier settlement on a large scale should also take into account such factors as the decentralisation of secondary industries to provide local markets, adequate water supplies, fixed prices for primary products, cheap electric power, and amenities for settlers’ families. Earlier evidence was given to the commission that more than 1,000,000 acres of New South Wales farming lands would be lost from soil erosion before the corrective measures now in train could take effect. About 50 per cent, of the State’s agricultural land is affected by erosion. Most of the unaffected land Is timbered.