EMPHATIC PROTEST

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 258, 29 September 1943, Page 4

EMPHATIC PROTEST

LAND SALES ACT

HOW FARMERS VOTED (Press Assn) WELLINGTON, Sept 28 “Results of the election show clearly that the farming community has registered a most emphatic protest against the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act,” said Mr W. Horrobin, Dominion treasurer of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, to-day. “There is not one rural electorate in the Dominion where the Government lias been given any real support by the farmers. “As the majority of farmers today are returned men of 1914-18 it is also an indication of what these men think of' the Government’s action in making use of the title ‘Servicemen’s Settlement’ in an Act designed to take away from returned soldiers the protection they had under the Lands for Settlement Act. The loss of his seat by the Minister of Agriculture in so decided a fashion is a sacrifice which Mr Barclay has been made to offer on the altar of sectional interests and can be largely set down to the passing of the Land Sales Act.

“The Prime Minister must now decide whether he is going to govern the country in accordance with the wishes only of the Labour Party, or whether .lie will govern it in accordance with the interests of the country as a whole. If Mr Eraser desires to obtain the wholehearted co-operation of all sections of the community, then he cannot ignore indications given by the poll.

“In these circumstances it is to he hoped and expected that the Government will consult representatives of the farming community and will endeavour to get agreement with them, particularly with a view to bringing forward a Servicemen’s Settlement Act and Land Sales Act, both Acts designed to enable New Zealand to make the finest possible job of enabling her returned men to go on the land.

“Such an action would go a long way towards giving farmers some encouragement in the strenuous efforts which they are making to arrest th« decline in production. “It would also go a-long way towards restoring eo-operation which has long been lacking 'between the farming community and the Government, but which is urgently necessary for the most efficient prosecution of New Zealand’s part in the war.”