COMING TO AN END.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16498, 2 August 1924, Page 12

COMING TO AN END.

LAND SETTLEMENT PROBLEM

(Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day,

“It is a question how long these special privileges are to continue,” remarked the Hon. A.. D. McLeod. Minister of Lands, at the conclusion of-his references in the House to soldier settlement. He was expressing' this opinion, he said, in perfect good faith, looking at the matter from all angles. It was six years since the armistice. At that time there< were quite a number of men in camp or in the course of transport to the front who got the special privileges of discharged soldiers. He had nothing to say against them, but they must not forget that-they got the special privileges of the soldiers who were out fighting at the front, and that immediately behind them were thousands of young men who were prevented by the age bar from joining up. The latter were now from 21 to 25 years of age. He had como in contact with difficulties in connection with settlement, especially in the rough districts of the centre of the North Island, where.men had gone in 20 ,to 30 years ago, hewn out a home for themselves, brought up a family, and now had boys growing up who required places to settle. These pioneers wanted land for their boys, and rightly so, and if possible somewhere near their fathers’ farms, but under the clauses of the Act he had to administer there were special privileges for soldiers, and the men he referred to were baited and had to go outside to,look for land. He be]ieve,d the Government would •have the general backing of the soldiers themselves in saying these special privileges for soldiers should cease. He knew that Returned Soldiers’ Associations were trying- to keep alive these privileges, but he did not honestly think they carried with them the bulk of soldier opinion. The great bulk of the soldiers had their opportunity four or five years ago, and they were getting the benefit of the Housing and other Acts. The Dunedin Soldiers’ Association had to ad vertiso asking men to come forward.

A member: They are doing Hamilton.

Mr. McLeod': I don’t think that position is quite fair. I think (lie time Is ripe when, except under special conditions, such as where extreme disability, has been caused by the war, lliese privileges will come to an end. In the case of disability thev will be extended as long as wo possibly can. but T am referring to the healthy soldier who came back four or five years ago and has rehabilitated himself as an ordinary citizen.