FARMERS PROTEST

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 27, 26 October 1940, Page 14

FARMERS PROTEST

Small Farms Amendment Bill Criticized OBJECTION TO METHOD OF ACQUIRING LAND “if farmers knew exactly what is implied in the Small Farms Amend; meat Bill, there would be a storm of protest from one end of New Zealand to the other. Under this Bill the Government has power to buy all the land in New Zealand and farm it on its own account,’' stated a resolution of protest passed by the monthly meeting of the Makara-Ilutt Valley Provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. Criticism of the Bill was voiced, when a circular explaining its provisions in detail was read to the meeting. The resolution was:—

‘•That this executive protests in the strongest possible terms against the provisions of the Small Farms Amendment Bill, and calls upon every farmer in New Zealand to investigate closely the powers which the Government proposes to take under it.

‘We object (among other things) to: (1) The doing away with the provisions of the Lauds for Settlements Act, 1925, which allowed a faruier to retain 400 acres of first-class land; 1000 acres of sec-ond-class land: 2500 acres of third-class land. This Bill gives power to take" the whole of any farm, or to pick the eye out of any farm. (2) The institution of two systems of acquiring land, viz,, one for land for small farms, and another for all other land the Government desires to acquire. (3) The taking away of the Supreme Court judge and replacing him with a magistrate. (4) The removal of the provisions of the Public Works Act which make Government transactions in land open to public inspection. (5) The basis or lack of basis for arriving at tliq, value of land taken. (6) The decreasing o£ the time for lodging claims for compensation. (7) The complete, departure from the known, tried, and established methods of taking land. "In conclusion, we would state emphatically that there is no valid reason for departing from the Public Works Act which has worked satisfactorily for many years, and in which the legal precedents are well established, and which has proved satisfactory over a long period.” The circular which gave rise to the resolution was sent out by the Dominion secretary on instruction of the Dominion president of the Farmers’ Union, Mr. W. W. Mulholland, who was said in the circular, to be “very perturbed at the provisions in the Bill.”

After discussion, the resolution was passed unanimously, and the meeting directed that it be published and that a copy be sent to the Prime Minister and to the members of Parliament for electorates in this province. In reply to a question why this matter had not received more publicity, the secretary, Mr. O. G. Thomas. said that copies of the criticism of the Bill had been circulated to all provinces, but that the Bill' had only come down just before Parliament rose, and it had taken some time to draw up the criticism.