LAND TRANSACTION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 226, 23 August 1945, Page 4

LAND TRANSACTION

discussion in house.

MINISTER’S STATEMENT

(Press Asm.) WEJXnTCSTON, Ays 22 The Minister ot Lands (Mr Skinner) today gave a written answer to Mr W. A. Sheat (Nat., Paten). who had inquired concerning an application .by F P. Walsh to purchase a faiming property near Wellington. Mr Skinnei informed the House of Representatives that the Land Sales Committees gave full consideration to the question of undue aggregation when dealing with, applications for consent to transactions where persons already owning land sought to acquire further land- Tins they were bound to do under the Act, as no doubt the honourable member knew very well. He ought to know also that the Minister did not instruct the committees in any particular. “However, in case he is not already aware of the fact, I am gmd to assure him the committees take a broad and reasonable view of the. aggregation of land,” added the Minister. The Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) said the name of the individual concerned had been deleted from the note to the question on the supplementary order paper, but in view of the publicity given the matter when the question was asked members should have the right to refer to the name. The House agreed to this course. Mr Skinner, supplementing Ins written answer, said Mr Sheat knew that the Minister of Lands had no right to interfere with the Land Sales Committees at all. The question was framed to give publicity to a particular iiansaction, which was selected from thousands going through the Land Sales Committee. At the time Air \\ alsh was negotiating the sale of Ins existing property in the Wairarapa to returned servicemen, and that sa'ie had since been completed subject to the committee’s approval. Had this sale not been delayed there would have been no suggestion of aggregation by Mr Walsh, and Mr Sheat knew that perfectly well. Mr Skinner added that, in any case, a number of members of the Opposition owned more than one farm. The reference to Mr Walsh had been grossly unfair and showed a lack of sense of proportion on the part of the member who asked the question. FULL FACTS SOUGHT.

Air Sheat: Tell us the full facts about the Wairarapa. property. Air Skinner: That does not concern this House. The Afinister added that Air AVa'lsh, in endeavouring to arrange the purchase of the second property, had been acting for relatives. The property concerned was unsuitable for returned men and there was no need to bring such pointless questions before the House.

Air Sheat: I object to the suggesti.- i that I asked this question from any ulterior motive. (Government laughter.) Mr Sheat asked why,, if Air Walsh had not been attempting to aggregate land, had the committee refused the application to purchase the second farm? The proper course for the committee would have been to delay its authority until the first farm had been sold. Air Sheat said that if a man of wealth, whether he be a trade union secretary or anyone else, wanted to invest bis surplus money to develop land, thereby helping production, it was a serious thing that he should be refused the opportunity to do so. The Minister had represented Air Walsh as a magnanimous, patriotic citizen, but was it not a fact that he had failed to comply with the terms on which he bought this Wairarapa farm ? Was it not a lands for settlement property, obliging the owner to live on it? Had not Air Walsh, with the connivance of the Lands Board and the Alinister of Lands, failed to comply with this condition since he bought the farm four years ago? Was he not fanning it as an absentee landlord through sharemilkers ? Air Sheat said that Air AYalsh had disclosed to the Land Sales Committee that he owned houses in Taumarunui and that he proposed to sell them, but lie had failed to indicate that he was negotiating the sale of the AVairarapa farm as the Alinister now related. The fact was Air Walsh was bound to divest himself of the Wairarapa farm or else live oil it.

Air F. AV. Doidge (Nat., Tauranga) Who is Air Walsh ?

Air Sheat: He is one of the big three of the Federation of Labour. Air Sheat added that if it had been disclosed to the committee that Air Walsh was acting on behalf of members of his family, then the committee’s rejection on the ground of attempted aggregation was a wrong one. PRIAIE MINISTER EXPLAINS.

Mr Eraser said the matter was something new in his experience of the House—it was the first time the business affairs of a citizen outside the House had been discussed. Mr Walsh was not an executive officer of the Federation of Labour, but he had been for many years an efficient secretary of the Seamen’s Union. He had been a member of the Stabilisation Commission and had worked night and day without a penny reward in his successful endeavours to preserve industrial peace in the Dominion during the - war. When lying on what might have have been his deathbed he had directed a patriotic art union with great success. He had lived on the Wairarapa farm until his duties as a member of the Stabilisation Commission, and then liis illness, had prevented him from doing so. In negotiating for the second property, Mr Walsh acted on behalf of his sister, and when the Investment Company which was financing the proposition asked him, for security purposes, to take some interest in the farm, he took a one-sixth share in it. There was no justification for a member asking such questions unless he wished to become expert in personal attacks on citizens outside the House. Mr tV. J. Poison (Nat., Stratford) said he .was interested in the Prime Minister’s extraordinary anger when any reference was made to a leader of the Labour movement. Mr Eraser: It is when I see anything contemptible. Mr Poison said there had been numerous occasions when a Minister had attacked persons outside the House who could not reply. If names were t not to be mentioned in the House, Ministers should also observe the rule. The House then passed oil to the next business.