LAND SALES ACT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 73, 23 September 1943, Page 6

LAND SALES ACT

COMPULSORY PROVISIONS

The New Zealand Farmers' Union takes exception to a statement reported to have been made at Petone on Tuesday night by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, Labour candidate for Hutt, that there was only one compulsory provision in the Land Sales Act, and that was that, after an area sufficient to maintain an owner and his family had been set aside, any surplus could be taken for the settlement of returned servicemen. "That is not correct," says the Farmers' Union in a statement issued yesterday. "There is no provision in the Act to provide for the retention of 'an area sufficient to maintain an owner and his family There is no reference to a family whatsoever. The actual wording in the Land Sales Act is that 'the owner shall have the right to retain any part of the land constituting an economic' holding. . . ." It should be noted that 'economic holding' is not denned in the Act. "Also, there are at least two other 'compulsory* provisions. Section 51 giv,es the Government power to take any land which is the subject of an agreement for sale (with certain exceptions). This power could apply to a family transaction. . "Section 50 (2) gives the Government power to impose conditions on the transfer of any property. This means that the Government can compel a buyer to use a house or a farm in such a way or for such purposes as the Government requires. "One of the things for which the Farmers' Union has been fighting is the laying down in clear and definite language the powers of the Government. One of the grave objections to the Land Sales Act is that it is a conglomeration of vague phrases which can be, and haye been, the subject of any interpretation which Parliament!ary candidates themselves desired to read into the Act. The statement made by the Minister of Finance at Petone proves this."