SOLDIER SETTLEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26413, 18 March 1947, Page 4

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT

At the end of the war there were approximately 10,000 returned servicemen desirous of being resettled on farms in the Dominion with rehabilitation assistance. The task faced by the Rehabilitation Department in arranging the acquisition of sufficient areas of suitable land to cope with this de-mand-.and, where necessary, having the would-be settlers trained, to a proper degree of competency in farming, presented problems of considerable magnitude to a department which had, in addition, many thousands of applications from other returned servicemen with which to deal. .In some cases, and in respect to particular trades or professions, these difficulties have been overcome by the department with a despatch that merits commendation. It is clear, however, that the same encouraging progress has not been achieved in the policy of land settlement, and the many and vexatious delays that are impeding the programme have been the subject of censorious comment by representatives of both farming and returned servicemen’s organisations. The most recent criticism has been voiced at a meeting of delegates of Returned Servicemen’s Associations in Dunedin, at which a remit to the Dominion Executive of the R.S.A. was approved, asking that “the Dominion Executive should arrange for a deputation (including efficient practical farmers, graziers, woolgrowers, orchardists - and beekeepers) to insist that the Lands and- Rehabilitation Departments should open up known productive economic land for experienced farmers.”

One of the major causes for this frequently expressed dissatisfaction appears to be the delay that occurs between the time that a prospective vendor offers his property for sale and the eventual disclosure of the valuation made by the State Advances Corporation on behalf of the Rehabilitation Board. Complaints have been made that months sometimes pass before the corporation’s valuations are made known, and when, as frequently happens, these valuations are considerably below the proposed sale figure, the owner withdraws from the negotiations rather than enter into tedious haggling for what he considers to be'a fair price. Another commonly expressed complaint is that capable ex-servicemen farmers are too often debarred from taking up land which has been acquired for rehabilitation purposes but is being farmed under State management. According to the statement made by Mr W. K. Cameron at a meeting of R.S.A. delegates last Monday, men are being given the opportunity of profit sharing and working on the land they will take over in the North Island, but the same privilege is denied to prospective farmers in the south. In Otago alone there are ’several large properties, originally acquired for soldier settlement, for which no plans of sub-division appear to have been completed though experienced and , capable returned servicemen are eager to secure possession of their sections. That there are difficulties in the way of settling thousands of applicants on economic holdings throughout New Zealand is understood. There can, however, be no excuse for the unnecessary delays which are now being reported with distressing frequency.