LAND SALES ACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 67, 16 September 1943, Page 6

LAND SALES ACT

SAFEGUARDS LACKING

Jlht 1 c Land Sales Act bad, and that the.Government knows it is bad are clearly indicated by the misinterpretations of its provisions that official Labour candidates are making," said Mr W W. Mulholland, Dominion president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, yesterday. "Mr. E L. Cullen, Labour candidate for Hawke's Bay, for instance, is re- ?^, r. te, d r> as sayin §: 'He knew of some oha returned men farming 700 to 800 acres of first-class land, who had sons away this time. Thee, men could not suffer unless there was enough land to subdivide after their requirements and those of their sons had been met.'.

I There is no such provision in the Act,' said Mr. Mulholland. "The only provision limiting the power to take farming land is that the farmer can claim the homestead and sufficient land to. make an economic holding. There is no provision in the Act to safeguard the farmers' sons in the way suggested by Mr. Cullen. 8

The Lands for Settlements Act, which the Farmers' Union recommended should be used for soldier-settle-ment, does contain this protection, but the Government emphatically turned this proposal down. This misstatement is only one of many that are being made by Government candidates in regard to this Act, and is consistent with the Government's action in introducing, under the guise of a soldiersettlement measure, an Act giving it extraordinary powers in the control of land, even to the extent of directing how it shall be farmed, what shall be done with it and who shall be allowed to own it. Parliament and the country were not made aware of these powers. I protest as strongly as I may against this political dishonesty"