Now Expected

Soldier Settlement in New Guinea

Money an Land Now Expected For Ex-Soldiers

From a Special Correspondent in Port Moresby The Bill under which former

servicemen in Papua and New

Guinea, possessing the necessary

qualifications, are to be provided with Government finance up to

£25,000 each, so that they may

become established as primary

producers, passed the Legislative

Council on September 16.

Naturally, there was no opposition.

The Bill was long overdue. In fact, most commentators here say that it is at least ten years too late to be of real service to the service men—but better late than never.

There are some men in sight whose condition will be vitally changed—mostly youngish men with young families. They have had plenty of agricultural experience; they know where they can get land: but they could get nowhere without finance. With finance, they probably will become well-to-do planters. But their number is limited.

If this Australian grant (now £250,000) had come along in the ’Forties, it could have established hundreds of young and deserving men as P-NG planters, to the permanent good of the Territory.

Most of the men now have gone elsewhere.

The Council approached the Bill with one big question mark. Here is the finance, they agreed; but what about the land? How are the men to get land? (Everyone knows that the Hasluck policy has been to discourage individual European settlement in this Territory, so that communal native settlement may be encouraged).

Ceaseless Pressure

Naturally, Mr. R. F. Bunting was the first non-official speaker. It was the ceaseless pressure of Mr.

Bunting and his RSL organisation, over the years, which finally induced the reluctant czars of Canberra to make this finance available.

Mr. Bunting expressed his pleasure at the Bill: but he went directly to the point: Did the Administration agree that, having made finance available, it had an

obligation to help suitable ap plicants to get land?

The president of the Council (Administrator D. M. Cleland) interjected: “It has been made perfectly clear that it is an obligation upon the Administration to make land available’’.

Tension immediately eased among non-official members they had been waiting to make this (finance, but no land) their chief criticism of the Bill.

Mr. lan Downs then pointed out that the Administration now had the problem of deciding where it would find available land. Con siderable areas were held by individuals, missions and other institutions which were not being used in any way.

Maybe, the Administration could adopt a system under which land should not be unreasonably with held from use, and under which qualified servicemen could get some preference in its allocation.

System Suggested

Mr. Fairfax Ross said this thing had been so long in coming that most qualified men now were “getting long in the tooth”. A system should be followed under which men should be assisted to acquire partly-developed properties, thus saving years of time. It would cost a man, starting de novo with new land, at least £6,000 per annum—£2s,ooo would not be enough.

All the non-official members — especially Messrs. Downs, Fairfax Ross, Dudley Jones and Father Dwyer—emphasised that the Board to be set up to supervise the whole scheme, was the keystone of the plan.

The Board could make or break it. That Board had to judge the progress being made by the settler, and whether he was “making a reasonable living from a home maintenance area”.

There is provision for non-official and RSL representation on the Committee which will screen and

finally select the ex-servicemen for financial aid; but there is no such provision in the membership of the permanent Board. According to the various speakers, there should be.

Minister's Discretion

Much, apparently, is left to the discretion of the Minister.

The Bill could mean much for the Territory—or it could represent very little. It is over to the Minister.

If the measure is to be imple mented in the manner that non officialdom now expects, we should see the first indications in a change in the Land Department and Land Board policies.