LAND SETTLEMENT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CVIII, Issue 1682, 31 May 1919, Page 2

LAND SETTLEMENT.

SOLDIERS' POINT OF VIEW.; Land settlement is tlie one direction into. whicih- it is safe to divert as many suitable mm as possible, because each, sett-er not only contributes to tiro wealith. of the> country, but creates.suitable work for. others, is the ©pinion expressed by the third annual Ireport of the Nw Zealand Returned Soid.ers' Association. The report- poinits out the nedd .for the appointment of an officer at the association's headquarters Co deal with land problems, aiud also suggests the desirability of each large district! association getting up a land bureau. | "Certain features of the admini sttration of the Land Department call for severe comment," the report continues. "Chief among 'these is the inordinate delay, sometimes extending oyer three months and more, in deaing with, properties under offer to soldiers. There is> no sound reason why such properties | should noit ba dealt with within one month in the* case of city properties, and sis weeks in the case of rural land. The argument that the negotiations are settled faster by the Department than, in the case of private land deals is irrelevant, because the settling of returned soldiers is different not only in degree, but in kind, from ordinary settlement. The demand for land by returned soldiers is no casual oaie to he satisfied 1 ' through 'the ordinary Channels of land ! exchange. Their tlisp-acement is duo not to economic, but to war causes, and every delay means ft period of forced idleness for- men. wiho would otherwise have be in working. This delay is doubly serious, since many propositions are rejected by the government, and an applicant may be obliged ; to wait loug periods before lib is finally disposed, qf. The fees charged fox- valuation, m-glit" well -be reconsidered. After t&e.- firsft fee has b-en paid, tile fees for subsequent valuation Of properties snouid be reduced ti» a minimum. "It is obvious tlia,i> were the system of land settlement ohorougii.y organised and'"advertised, an immensely larger number of men, than, those now offering could bo settled, with a corresponding Stimulus to production. No adequate effort has been made by lnent to secure the most su.table claiss of settler, wilch tlhe resullt that inea-rly evary man desiring to settle li£i§ been given an opportunity, a considerable number through ,uinfitness of various kinds will fail. The Ihigh ralte of wages' * ruling during the war has made men unwilling to begin u period in farming, and suftauSe necessary for organising a workable! large unirppfoved areas, which . would provide training at the same tmie as a sett-ler is working his holding."