LAND SETTLEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26197, 6 July 1946, Page 8

LAND SETTLEMENT

REHABILITATION SCHEME FALLING PRODUCTION ALLEGED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, July 4. Not one soldier had yet been settled on land purchased by the Crown in his district, though many had been settled on properties they had sought out themselves and for which they had received rehabilitation assistance, stated Mr J. A. Roy (Oppn., Clutha) during the Ad-dress-in Reply Debate in the House of Representatives to-day. He added that some of the land acquired by the Government had been in a state of high production before the Crown bought it and there had been some subdivision and building which could have been expedited. The experience had been that production of these places fell. His opinion was that the men should be placed on the properties at once. Mr Roy said that when half a dozen men were supervising a property, as happened under the Crown, and each had different ideas, no progress was made. He felt that if Grade A men were put on the properies they could not make any worse job of them than was the case at present. He did not think it satisfactory for Grade B men to be put out on farms under the Lands and Survey Department and be instructed by several individuals, each of whom had different ideas. The Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser: I am very interested if anything is happening to block the settlement of our men. It is our duty to help. Mr Roy said that he knew it was desired that properties should be in first-class order before the men went on them, but his view was to let the men go on and develop the properties themselves and come to some arrangement with them to cover the developmental period.