SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.
Sir Joseph Ward opposes 'the purchasing of small properties for soldier settlement, on the ground that the price paid for these estates puts up the value of larger estates that are required for sub-division. There is no strength in this argument, because the small estates are, as a rule, close to the markets, and in a majority of cases they are being offered to the Government at less than their present sellable value. If the Leader of the Opposition were to argue from the standpoint of national production, he would be getting somewhere near the mark. The objection to acquiring small farms for soldiers is, as a rule, that these farms are already highly cultivated and producing their maximum. To take one man off and put another on is not to increase our output. Moreover, in many cases the man who goes out retires to a centre and lives on his income without further effort to develop the national' resources. This is not in the best interests of the country. The first estates to be acquired should be those held in large areas, and which are not producing anything like their maximum.
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Wairarapa Age, 15 November 1919, Page 4
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194SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. Wairarapa Age, 15 November 1919, Page 4
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