The Small Farms Bill

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23191, 30 November 1940, Page 12

The Small Farms Bill

The Prime Minister’s assurances to the House of Representatives that the Small Farms Amendment Bill will affect only land at present being inadequately farmed, and thdt the Government will use compulsion only when negotiation has failed, will to some extent pacify the opposition that the measure has roused throughout the country. They have, however, no statutory effect. The bill itself contains no limiting or defining clauses that correspond with the Prime Minister’s assurances; and it was not until farmers had almost unanimously condemned it that the assurances were forthcoming. In spite of the Prime Minister’s promises, the bill creates dangerously vague and wide powers of dispossession. The farmer who considers that his land has been taken below its real value is still exposed to very real risks. The safeguard of a right of appeal simply does not exist. Though it may be true that the agitation against the bill has partly arisen from the historic reluctance of landowners to give up their properties, irrespective of the compensation to be paid—similar arguments were used when the large holdings began to be resumed for closer settlement at the end of last century—no one in New Zealand dissents from the fundamental proposition that soldiers when they return from the war should be given the most favourable opportunities to acquire land that they may be able to farm successfully and contentedly. But there seems to be no very good reason to rush through empowering legislation to deal with a problem of which the outlines have yet only vaguely appeared. Soldier settlement in New Zealand has been an exceedingly costly venture. By every means a repetition of past and costly failures must be avoided; but it cannot be avoided by hastilyconsidered legislation. The first step necessary is not to prepare to take land but to develop the broad outlines of a settlement scheme and survey the country’s land resources with a view to working it out. It should then be possible to go further into production needs and possibilities, including the financing, stocking, equipping, and improving of the new farms. The Government has made a great show of speed and vigour ih attacking the problem; but it is an empty show. What is really urgent is the preparation of a scheme. It is not at all . urgent to have new (and excessive) powers to take the land for it.