The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY. SEPT. 1st, 1917. LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17076, 1 September 1917, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle "Nulla Dies Sine Linea." SATURDAY. SEPT. Ist, 1917. LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

Not only here, but in the Mother Coun try as well, there are far-seem; men who realise that one of th^ first reforms, in point both of time and of importance, which ought to be carried through at the close of the war, is to settle a largo number of returning soldiers on the land. Something in this direction is already being attempted by the National Government of this Dominion, where the problem is perhaps a great deal easier of solution than it is in the United Kingdom. The editor of the "Saturday Review" is one of those who realise that Great Britain needs and. must have on the land a great number of small holders. "After all," he says, " when every argument, has been pressed against adopting tli& French system of small culture —such as the drawbacks of a too minute subdivision of lands, and the frequent poverty and indebtedness of peasants who often' hav c "to mortgage their little properties, and so on —the fact remains that the French system has proved a success in the war. It has made and it keeps the people on the lanQ intensely patriotic and' national. It encourages thrift. It gives the peasantry a zest and human interest in the soil, and so is an incentive to good farming and industry. It must tend always to produce more abundance of foodstuffs. A large number of British soldiers in France to-day have seen

the French system at -work. They have seen —for. all France is not the shelled and rained Sonime—the small, snug homes and estates worth working hard for in peace, and worth fighting and dying for in war. The French soldier's pay is not large—but then he can feel, in a vast number of instances, that he is really fighting for his very own : there is no sentimental consideration about that, at any rate, but bedrock fact. At a little distance behind the battlefields, in various sports in' France to-day, one can see these homes, these miniature estates, some of them exquisitely tended even now, they are a mighty strong argument for petite culture. When the British fightingnien return they are liot going to settle down to 255. or 30s. a week, with no direct concern no pride .of possession in the soil they till beyond the bare livelihood they extract from it. They are sure to desire, to expect, a share, a part and parcel, in the England they have saved." And we have got to remember that they are saving New Zealand no less than they are saving the United Kingdom. The truth has not yet been driven home as it should be. Suppose it had been fully .realised that we were not quite safe, that the enemy might get at us, and reduce us to what Sir Edward Grey in 1909 described as the "conscript appanage of some f orsign Power"; in that case, i would there have, been any necessity for conscription? Scarcely, for, as Mr.. Dewar says, people would have volunteered to save their skins. And yet it is a fact that the soldiers in constant peril at the front in France to-day are saving, .literally this country from the enemy, just as surely as'they are doing the same great service for the Mother Country. So that were it not for the men in the trenches and at the front generally, we should eventually have the Germans in here. It follows that the men who are doing this for us will on their return have a very solid claim to some personal stake in the country they have saved. Many, no doubt, will not wish to take their share in the form of land; and it would bo bad policy to plant on the soil as owners those who have not the instinct of ; the soil in them. But amongst those who return there will be a considerable • proportion who have had experience of farming, and who will be qualified to take up small holdings. Here, as in England, these men must be given j the option of becoming small holders, i whether owning or State tenantry—Lire ! we agree with Mr Dewar that the for- 7 rner is, where practicable, the better plan } for the "magic of ownership" is a very real thing. They must be given the financial start, of course, in either ease; and the Empire, having demonstrated its ability to successfully finance over three years of unproductive war—costing now nearly eight millions a day!—will scarcely be horrified at the outlay involved in finding productive occupation for its' heroes. What is needed, however, is that an adequate scheme should be evolved at once.