TENURE JEOPARDISED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 197, 20 August 1943, Page 2

TENURE JEOPARDISED

PROVISIONS OF BILL EFFECT UPON LEASEHOLDS (By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day.. The soldier should be entitled to his home without let or hindrance said Mr. Bodkin (National, Central Otago), speaking in the second reading debate on the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Bill in the House of Representatives last evening. The cat had been left out of the bag by the member for Timaru, Mr Carr who had suggested that the bill brought about complete cdntrol short of actual ownership, He had shown that the Government's aim was complete socialism. If the soldier had a one-man farm would it not have been a fair thing to have exempted him from the clause giving the Government power to take land from returned soldiers upon their return, asked Mr. Bodkin. The hearts of the Government bled for the serviceman, but they had said in the bill that his farm was not sacred. He asked whether the Government would support an amendment in that direction if it were moved. That was the acid test Later on in the bill provision was made for the taking of a soldier's home, said Mr. Bodkin, and he wanted to know would Government members vote for an amendment excluding a soldier's home from being taken for all time. Referring to the land sales committees, Mr. Bodkin said the bill would not give lessees the protection they at present" enjoyed. Presentday leases were for three, five or seven years as a rule, but there was not a hotel-keeper in this country simple enough to believe that if the bill became law he would get a lease for as long as three years. It would be for a term of two years, or perhaps up to two years and nine months. What chance had the unfortunate hotel-keeper to build up goodwill? He applied the same argument to lessors of shops and offices. They would be able to get only short, leases because landlords would say that the transaction would not go to the committees.