PARLIAMENT

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 28 September 1927, Page 6

PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT BILL. SECOND READING DEBATE. Wellington, September 27. In the House of Representatives this afternoon, the Hon. A. D. McLeod moved the second reading of the Land for Settlement Amendment Bill, which, he explained, alters the constitution of the Dominion Land Purchase Board, so as to have all responsible officers members of the public service. The seat on the board which is now held by a person appointed by the Governor-General will, if the bill passes, be filled permanently by the Superintendent of the State Advances Office. The range of land which may be resumed bv rhe Government for disposal is to be wid ■ ened bv making it legal to resume possession of the whole or anv portion of any Crown land held under lease or license, whether the land is ordinary Crown land settlement land or national endowment land. The written recommendation of the Land Purchase Board will be reouired before a proclamation of resumption may be issued, and leases or licenses affected will be determined on the date of proclamation. Provision is made for the payment of compensation for any substantial permanent improvements on land resumed and also for paying to the lessee th* •alue of the unexnired term of his lease or license. This value will be fixed in the first instance bv the Valuer-General, with the final right of appeal to a board comprising a magistrate and two assessors, one of whom will he appointed bv the Minister of I/ands and the other bv rhe lessees concerned. REMISSION OF RENT. Provision for meeting cases cl hardship caused by natural disasters or other sufficient causes is also maa< in the bill. The Minister of Lands shall have power, on the recommendation of a land board, to remit rhe payment of rent by lessees on settlement land for ar • period un to five years, or he may postpone oavment up to a like period and then renew postponement for a further >er iod if the circumstances warrant Postponed rent is to carry interest of not less than four per cent, per annum, which shall be payable halfyearly. If a tenant so desires, he mav apply to a land hoard to have postponed rent added to the capital value of his land. On transfer the Minister may require the whole 01 part of the postponed payments to be paid off. The provision is to appi’. also to land held on the deferred nav ment plan. In order to facilitate the settlement of land that is not nn mediately remunerative, the Minister is empowered to grant renewable leases for periods of 33 vears and. on the recommendation of a land board, to allow the use of land rem free for the first ten vears. Mr J. A, Lee /Auckland East) said that in view of the professions of the Reform party at the last general election about land settlement this bill was a confession --f that party that they had no intention of fulfilling those promises. T 1... bill was simply patching existing legislation. The Minister had not said a. single word regarding his •■♦entio'H about the devolpmcnt of the lands of the Dominion, and the House was entitled to know -Jiv he was not making the main land laws of the country function, or when he was coin'to make them function and compel largo landowners to subdivide their properties. TE WERA PURCHASE. Mr G. W. Forbes (Hurunui) said the Te Wera purchase was a most curious affair, and he wondered whether the bill before the House was going to bring about a better svstem of land purchase than existed in ’.he past. He suggested that no Government valuer could successfuilv perform his duties in both the North and South Islands. He felt that the Minister was weighed down hr the weight of the troubles he inherited in the shape of soldier settlements. There must be more land settlement if we were going to keep the unemployed off the streets of our towns.

Mr. A. Bell (Bay of Islands) said anyone who unclerstood land settlement under present-day conditions must admit that the Minister of Lands was doing his best under the difficult circumstances brought about largely by the late war. Mr W. E. Parry (Auckland Central) said we did not require more land laws in New Zealand. What we wanted was administration of the laws we have.

Mr D. Jones (Ellesmere) defended the Government policy of placing returned soldiers on the land. While admitting that mistakes had been made, more mistakes were made by experienced farmers than hy the Government. The land policy of the Government had been absolutely justified by results. Mr T. M. Wilford said the Govern ment had for years encouraged the idea that the Wilford settlement in the Hutt Valley had been purchased by the Liberal Government from the Wilford family. That was not so. It was originally the Mudgway Estate and the Wilford family never owned a single acre of it. For years he had tried to get the Reform Government to put up sections for sale, but they had refused to do so, though people were clamouring for the land.

land gambling. Mr H. T. Armstrong (Christchurch East) said farmers' troubles were not due to high wages, but to land gambling, which had submerged them under ever-increasing mortgagesThe Hon. O. J. Hawken said the fact was that there was little land in New Zealand which could be settled by men with small capital. Rough land could not be broken in without the aid of capital, and it was not wise to invite poor men to take up land which men with capital would not touch. There was really no great demaud for land in New Zealand at the present time. He thought it more profitable to improve existing settled land than to break in new country. Mr E. J. Howard (Christchurch South) claimed that no political party could come into power without a land policy. Labour’s policy was the usehold, which meant the'undisturbed right to use land and that no one should hold land who did not use it. The Government policy, on the other hand, was to make land as free

as possible to the speculator. If Labour came into power gambling in land would have to stop. The Hon- A. D. McLeod, in reply, said he was quite prepared to hand over the file of the Te Wera purchase to a committee of the Labour party, and if they could bring down a report showing any crookedness or anything twisted he would resign his position. The Reform Government had settled more people on the land than the Liberal party- What was done after the war was largely the result of public agitation. He was confident New Zealand would yet settle as many people as any other portion of the British Empire. LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL. The bill was read the second time, and the House went into committee on the Legislation Amendment Bill. The Minister stated that he proposed to ask the committee to delete clauses one to nine from the bill dealing with the question of electoral boundaries, and next session he would bring down a bill dealing with the question of boundaries. The effect of the deletion of the clauses would be that the boundaries which bed just been gazetted would stand for two elections. Several minor amendments moved by the Minister were agreed to. The bill was reported, read the third 'ime. and passed. 1110 House rose at 0.15 a.m. till ’■3o p.m.