REMARK RESENTED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 198, 21 August 1943, Page 4

REMARK RESENTED

OPPOSITION "CHEEK"

LAND BOOM SUGGESTION

(By Telegraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. The atmosphere in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon during the committee stage of the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Bill warmed up appreciably when the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, accused the Opposition of misleading the country regarding the number of property transactions and the value of those transfers. When Mr. Nash said that the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Holland, had the "cheek" to come into the House and say that there was nothing to the Government's statement about an incipient land boom, Mr. Holland and other members of the Opposition took vigorous exception to the remark. Mr. Nash said that the Government Statistician, comparing land transfers registered for the five months of the current calendar year with those for a similar period in recent years, stated that the comparison would indicate something in the nature of a minor boom in property sale, and yet the Leader of the Opposition had the cheek to say that there was nothing in it. Mr. Holland: Who are you to talk about cheek? You should be the last one to talk about cheek.

The Minister of Finance had referred to him in very derogatory and very ungenerous terms, said Mr. Holland, and it came well from a Minister who had enough cheek to talk on any subject under the sun. He was not going to take it from the Minister on this or any other occasion, and he could put that in his cherrywood and smoke it. Mrj Holland quoted extensively from the Abstract of Statistics dated April 30, 1943, and said he had quoted the figures for each year contained therein. All the; Minister had quoted were figures for seven months. The average price per acre of transfers of country property for the five years up to March 31 last was £8 15/. Official figures also showed that the average price per acre in 1939 was £9 14/, and that for the last year it was £9 7/.