CORRESPONDENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 16800, 2 April 1919, Page 11

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the "Timaru Herald."

Sh - was very pleased to see tiom ". the Minister' of Lands and Land , Board's telegrams to the Development ' League that a report by an unofficial j | commission of four practical men is to | be made as to the suitability or other- t wise of subdividing Clayton for a * soldiers' settlement. I would just like * to ppint out here, that that has i already been done,- and by a far more i reliable tribunal than' any the Lands i Department can appoint. At the present moment there are at lea£t thieo f syndicates of soldiers, from live to r seveu, or I believe eight, in. nuinbei, , keen to take over this property at the price offered -and accepted recently by j a Christcliurch syndicate of civilians. They are asking no financial assistance , from the Government, and 1 tia\e_ ' authority for saying that some, if not" all of thes>e syndicates are prepaied and eager to enter into' an agreement ; with the Government, that in the course of thiee to five years, ■when fencing and building material may '' again be back to normal prices, each ' will reside on his section of this pro- ' perfcy . and carry out all' conditions in ' accordance with the provisions of the Discharged Act, the Govern- ' ment in the < meantime making the ne'ces«ary survey* lor the'requh ed number of sections, when valuations can be mutually igreed on and the sections balloted for by the members of the syndicates in the usual way. If these gentlemen are prepared to put all I their own and friends' money in the i property on the "above terms' without | anv Government assistance it. absolutely I affirms without a shadow of- a doubt that this property is most suitable for subdivision. Therefore the only question that can be left for" this commission of ' four is as to the-number of sections it can be cut intq to be made?, the m<sst | efficient use of by the successful appli- ' cants. The anxiety and large number of inquiring soldiers after this propertv thoroughly reminds meoff.the great ballot for'the t runs a few J years ago.—l "am, etc., ',-- , - [ ,_ . ROBERT^pTHRIE. Timaru, April l."- -"-P*- <,. 'A -^