SMALL FARM TENURE

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23080, 24 July 1940, Page 8

SMALL FARM TENURE

OCCUPIERS SAID TO

BE DISSATISFIED !

GRANTING OF LEASES

SUGGESTED

[From Our Parliamentary Reporter!

WELLINGTON, July 23. The charge that the. Government was treating the occupiers of small . farms unfairly in not giving them leases, and in expecting them to work longer hours for less pay than smgle men on blocks, was made by Mr w. S. Goosman (Opposition, Waikato) in the House of Representatives to-day. ; Speaking on the vote of £BO,OOO to , be transferred from the agriculture vote to the Public Works Fund, he de- , dared that the occupiers would walk off in a body if the Government would say that they would not get a lease. Mr Goosman said he had received • letters from occupiers in his district. For some years they had been work* ,;J ing and producing without any defin- r ite word that they would get some title r to their land. All single men work- - ing on blocks were being paid higher : wages for shorter hours, and the occupiers described the work done as a public scandal. The Minister for Lands (the Hon. F.

Langstone): Give us the name of the block.

Mr Goosman; I am not prepared to do that' at the moment; but I can vouch for them.

“It is definitely unfair,” continued Mr Goosman. “The occupiers are receiving no reward for any increase in production.”

Mr Langstone; They are the best paid men on dairy farms in New Zealand.

Mr Goosman: Even if they are the best paid they do not compare with other men. If the Government will say these men have some prospects, *it won’t be so bad.

Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Opposition, Waitomo) said that there would have been some equalisation if the promises to ; small farm holders had been kept. The granting of even renewable leases - seemed to be disliked by the Minister . ;-,, for Lands. Some settlers had walked \f oft their properties. It was time that # they had their titles, and he hoped the f Prime Minister would see that they re- i ceived justice. ji