THE Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1919. LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XVII, Issue 5607, 2 May 1919, Page 2

THE Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1919. LAND FOR SOLDIERS.

Here shall the Press the People’s Right maintain, Una wed by inlJuence and unbribed by gain, Hero Patriot Truth her glorious precepts draw. Pledged to Religion Libertv and Law.

There appears to be reason for tire complaint that New Zealand is hardly doing its duty to the men returning horn the front. The men have been led to believe during their absence that there was no need to worry over the future—that though they were unable to save anything from their modest pay a (grateful country would not forget them, but would give them opportunities to settle on the laud. Oh arrival in New Zealand those who are fit are discharged with a gratuity which inadequately compensates them for therr inability to save money during the time they have been away at the front. In contrast with the stops taken by Australia and Canada to have farming lands available for repatriated soldiers. New Zealand’s lack of any real policy of soldier settlement is regrettable. A few small properties have been bought here and there throughout the Dominion but-the area provided is inadequate to meet the demands for settlement by the returning men—many of them men with experience in the working of land and who are just the class ol settler that the country wants if production is to be promoted. The National Government has had tour yean t> prepare for the contingency which Is is faced with to-day and has done next to nothing, and its members need not be surprised if a public protest against the lack of a settlement polio; is strongly expressed at the next general election. The Government is only ready to purchase large tracts ot pumice country in the interior of the country and to scud the soldiers out as pioneers of this poor land. The Minister should bo prepared to pay a fair market price ■or land fit fo r farming, of which plenty is available. The groat need of this country is more production. If the empire is to meet the heavy burdba of war expenditure without imposing crushing taxation the only way it can be done is by stimulating industry and winning more wealth from the sod. This should be the policy of the conu--1.1 y—to ensure the fuill economic employment of the young men who have been fighting to save these islands from being a Gorman possession. The absence of such a policy is no credit to our administration,