Library Collections: Document: Full Text


The Disabled Soldier

Creator: Douglas C. McMurtrie (author)
Date: 1919
Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16  Figure 17  Figure 18  Figure 19  Figure 20  Figure 21  Figure 22  Figure 23  Figure 24  Figure 25  Figure 26

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329  

The Canadian Soldier Settlement Act, passed last year, establishes a soldiers' settlement board which may recommend to the Minister of the Interior reservation of dominion crown lands. The minister may grant to discharged soldiers or sailors of Canada, the United Kingdom, or any self-governing dominion free entry of not over 160 acres of this reserved land. An order-in-council has reserved for the settlement of returned soldiers all vacant and available dominion lands within fifteen miles on either side of railways in the districts where sufficient land is available for settlement on a large scale. The board may also grant loans not exceeding $2,500 to the settlers for the acquisition or improvement of land, the payment of incumbrances, erection of farm buildings, etc. The loans shall be at five per cent., and the principal shall be repaid in twenty annual instalments. Payment of the first two instalments may be deferred by the board. The loan is to be expended under the supervision of the board; it is granted in the form of warrants for expenditures, which are honored by the banks as checks. The board is authorized also to provide for the training of returned soldiers on farms, for the creation of agricultural training stations, for the appointment of instructors and inspectors, and for training in domestic and household science for the settlers' wives.

330  

The Canadian Pacific Railway Company has also worked out a scheme for the settlement of returned soldiers on the lands which it owns in the western provinces of Canada. The settlement may be either on "improved farms" in colonies selected by the company, or under an "assisted colonization" system, where the settler selects his own land from any of the company's unsold land. The cost is to be repaid in twenty instalments, with interest at five per cent.

331  

In Australia the conference of the premiers of the several states in January, 1917, adopted a general plan which aims at settling on land 40,000 returned soldiers and sailors, Australian and British. The scheme is based upon the cooperation of the commonwealth and the states; the latter are to supply the land, since the crown lands are owned by the several states, and the former is to provide the necessary funds. The Federal government promised to raise 20,000,000 pounds by loan, to be devoted to land settlement. Out of the Federal Fund, an advance of 500 pounds for improvements may be made to the settler, on very easy repayment terms, the first annual instalment being of three and one-half per cent. only. The several states have enacted legislation to help the settlement of returned soldiers. New South Wales, which has over two million acres available, transfers the land to the soldiers for an annual five per cent, interest charge with one per cent, for amortization; the total charge will be redeemed in thirty-eight years. The state may also advance to the settler 500 pounds, reserving the right to supervise the expenditures, and provides for him also educational and advisory aid. The state of Queensland has reserved all public lands for returned soldiers; there will be no rent charge for several years; then for twelve years the rent will be one and one-half per cent, of the capital value; later the rent charge will be fixed by rent-courts. Loans may be granted up to 500 pounds, at an initial rate of three and one-half per cent., gradually increasing to five per cent.; the loans are repayable in forty years. Other states, which have no public lands of sufficient fertility available must necessarily purchase land for soldier settlement. Thus in Tasmania the government purchases large estates and divides them into small holdings; the money advanced by the commonwealth is used for improvements. The state government may also provide the settler with live stock to the value of 150 pounds and with advances in cash up to 500 pounds for buildings. All the sums expended are repaid in small annual instalments.

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In New Zealand, the Governor may from time to time reserve any area of crown land for the settlement of discharged soldiers. The holdings may be leased or sold to the applicants on terms decided upon by the Land Board; upon the recommendation of the latter, the Minister of Lands may also grant loans to the settlers.

333  

In Germany the periodical pension payments may be commuted to a lump payment to enable the disabled soldier to settle on the land and undertake farming. In Prussia, where the government has been active for twenty-five or thirty years in promoting the creation of small holdings, the disabled soldier can take advantage of the old legislation regarding the so-called "rent-fee holdings"; these are farms transferred to the settler, with the help of the state annuity-banks, against an annual rent charge redeemable in about sixty years. To help the settlement of disabled soldiers, similar legislation has been enacted during the war in some other German states, as in Bavaria and in the Duchy of Brunswick.

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