248 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



The forcing of land settlement should be avoided, particularly for 

 returned soldiers, and proper land development schemes should be pre- 

 pared in advance of any land settlement. 



Any financial aid that may be given as a reward for military service 

 should be determined apart from any other question, and should not be 

 confused with land settlement schemes. 



For ex-service men, and others, desirous of taking up intensive farm- 

 ing near to urban centres, where they can have alternative means of 

 employment and congenial social conditions, areas of suitable land should 

 be selected and definitely set apart for small agricultural holdings near 

 these centres. Such areas should either be purchased or, if privately 

 owned, should be delimited under development schemes for agricultural 

 purposes and assessed on an agricultural basis, subject to the payment 

 of an increment tax, if, and when, the land is converted into building land. 



In the event of any scheme or schemes being promoted to form town 

 settlements or garden cities, as advocated in this report, opportunities 

 should be provided in these settlements for employment of returned soldiers, 

 including partially disabled men, in factories or on farms, or in industries 

 of a domestic or semi-agricultural character; adequate provision being 

 made for the housing of such men and their families in sanitary and agree- 

 able homes. 



Ex-farmers living in cities, who desire to go on the land, but are 

 prevented from doing so owing to their having purchased building lots 

 which cannot be sold at present in the open market, should be assisted 

 in obtaining release of their capital, in order to become producers and to 

 lessen the prospects of unemployment for those returned soldiers who will 

 want to work in the cities. 



The scope and variety of opportunity for both ex-soldiers and new 

 immigrants should be widened so as to embrace all classes of rural indus- 

 try that can be successfully promoted and not agriculture alone; and the 

 combination of free homesteading or artificial pressure with haphazard 

 methods of settlement should be abandoned. 



With regard to the recommendation relating to ex-farmers, interest- 

 ing and important evidence is given by Mr. J. H. T. Falk, in the article 

 which forms Appendix E, showing that there is a considerable num- 

 ber of Slavs in Winnipeg who have capital and experience of farm- 

 ing. The only difficulty is: These people have been speculating 

 in building lots, and, because they still hold these lots, have, there- 

 fore, no available funds to enable them to acquire farming land 

 where they can put it to profitable use. A large proportion of the 

 men who came to Canada to farm during the boom in city lands were 



