THREAT TO FREEHOLD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 37, 12 August 1943, Page 6

THREAT TO FREEHOLD

MR. MULHOLLAND'S VIEWS PA, CHRISTCHURCH, August 11. "While the North Canterbury Provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers' Union is in favour of measures for the rehabilitation of returned servicemen, we enter an emphatic protest against the Servicemen's Settlemint and Land Sales Bill, which is definitely opposed to the principles of British justice. Under the pretence of assisting our servicemen it .introduces measures of Socialism which are anathema to those who value the principles of freehold, which > constitute some of the greatest privileges of our British heritage. We accordingly ask that the empowering legislation be deferred till the new Parliament meets to give more time for its consideration. This resolution was carried unanimously by a special meeting of the executive in Christchurch today, when the Dominion president, Mr. W. W. Mulholland, discussed some of the implications of the Bill. . "This is the most far-reaching and vicious attack on property made in any British country to date," Mr. Mulhoilarid said. "We want only to keep our country on a sane and proper basis, but inside 20 years under this legislation it is possible for every freehold property to come under Government leasehold. The Bill is alleged to be for soldiers' settlement, but it will do more to retard that than anything else I can imagine." Mr. Mulholland said that most servicemen would settle on the land privately, and a big number would take over their fathers' farms. Unless by direct gift, the transaction would come under the jurisdiction of the land committees or Courts, who would have

complete power. The land of a man overseas could not be taken, but immediately he returned he was open to the implications of the Bill. More than 20 per cent, of the land in New Zealand would change hands after the war, when five or six years of delayed transactions would be made up. This indicated the immense effect the Bill could have almost immediately. "We will probably have trade union secretaries and unsuccessful politicians as the two laymen dn each committee, and they will have power to overrule the president, who must be eligible for the Supreme Court," Mr. Mulholland continued. "This strikes at the very roots of British justice. These committees will have the final say in dealing with hundreds of millions of pounds of property, and yet they may be completely controlled b}' the Government. Some measures are necessary for soldier settlement and the prevention of inflation, but I personally feel that the limitation of mortgage would effectively secure this result."