SOLDIER SETTLEMENT ACT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18784, 18 May 1923, Page 5

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT ACT

FUNDS EXHAUSTED. NO MORE APPLICATIONS TO BE RECEIVED. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, May 17. The Government hag decided that no more applications for advances under the Discharged Soldier Settlement Act will be received for the present. The Acting Minister for Lands, Sir Francis Bell, said that the funds which the Government had set aside for the purpose had been exhausted. Many of the applications already in hand could not be granted, consequently it had been decided that no more applications would be received. /t was also intended that new legislation should be introduced next session, though he was not in a position to indicate what line would be taken.

Asked as to the work of the soldiers’ inquiry boards, Sir Francis stated that all reports should be received before the end of the month. Until the final report had been received, the Government could not decide what it would do to relieve the present position. It might be that a very large sum of money was involved, the extent of which could not be ascertained until all information gathered by the boards was consolidated. At any rate, legislation would have to be dealt with at the next session of Parliament.