SOLDIER SETTLERS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19914, 9 August 1927, Page 7

SOLDIER SETTLERS

MEN WHO FAILED Government Will Not Give Compensation • THE WORK OF RE-VALUATION. [ Special “ Chronicle ” Service. ] WELLINGTON, Aug. 7. An emphatic statement was made by the Minister of Lands (the Hon. A. D. McLeod) when replying to a discussion on soldier settlement in the House of Representatives. Mr McLeod said the Government would refuse to compensate soldiers or anyone else who went off the land because they had not been able to make a success of farming operations. The Government, however, .was wholly sympathetic with soldiers, and was prepared to extend- the fullest consideration to every case of hardship. The moment an association was formed in a district to bring about something that the settlers thought they required, it could safely be said that those settlements would end up in trouble. When settlers commenced to press in a body, they did no useful service for themselves in a general way, for it was often the case that the fight was being put up on behalf of two or three men who ought to have, been out of the settlement a long time before. Mr W. J. Jordan (Manakau): that apply to farmers’ unions? The Minister replied that he did not intend to widen the scope of the discussion, but it might. Where an individual settler placed his case before the Department it was thoroughly investigated, and he was bound to say that the leniency and sympathy extended to the men could not be questioned by any member of the House. In saying what he did about associations, Mr McLeod made it clear that he was not referring to the Returned Soldiers’ Association, wnich had been of very valuable service to the Department. He was under an obligation to practically the whole of the branches of the R.S.A.

The First Mortgagee. It had been suggested that in giving relief the first mortgage should be written off cooncurrcntly. with the writing off of the second mortgage, but how was that going to be done? Where the Crown had advanced £2500 as a first mortgage, and there wore second and third mortgages, how were they going to arrive at a fair basis of what to do? Someone had to decide, and the only fair thing was to call in a valuer. There must be some basis for valuations, and if the value was there it must belong to the first mortgagee. The Hon. D. Buddo (Kaiapoi): That is what the soldier settlers complain of —the first mortgagee will do nothing The Minister: Why should the first mortgagee do anything if he is fully covered? Mr Buddo: He takes his pound of Acsh. He has the chattel security, and has his first mortgage, so what is the use of the other man trying to help at all? “Who is to be the judge of what point it can be written down to?” replied Mr McLeod. Mr Buddo: That policy will simply mean that the soldiers will have to walk off. That is the end of it. The Minister: “I am bound to say that through no action of the Crown has a soldier had to walk off.” No Compensation.* “I am going to say, as Minister of Lands,” remarked Mr McLeod, “that compensation will not be made. I think that there is too much behind the whole principle to giye way on that point. There might be many reasons why land had not been farmed successfully, but somdono had to decide who was at fault, and sooner or later the matter would become political, and with the thousands of Crown tenants in the country, there would be a risk of injustice being donfc, the general taxpayer. The question of compensation could not be considered. He did not think that it would be possible to carry on the work erf the Department if they admitted that compensation had to be paid in cases of failure to farm successfully. The Minister said he wanted to impress on the House that the average soldier was to-day valued and paying rent on a lower basis than the freeholder alongside him. He did not think that the majority of the soldiers were complaining. They recognised that the country had done as much as it was reasonably possible to do for them, and that their valuations were down to the basis of the civilian alongside and, in most cases, below that.