Misgivings Of Farmers

Northern Advocate, 28 October 1948, Page 2

Misgivings Of Farmers

WELLINGTON, Thu. (Sp.)— Farmers' misgivings would not be allayed by the explanations of the Minister of Land (Mr Skinner) about the Land Valuation Court Bill, said the Dominion president of the Federated Farmers (Mr W. N. Perry).

“The president of the court should be a- member of the Supre'me Court bench,”-he remarked. “It should also be pointed out that the Government has taken power to appoint the other two members. “I wonder what would happen if a non-Labour Government took power to appoint both assessors in the Arbitration Court.

“The bill as constituted does not give the Government power to establish a biased court, which could be used to deny justice to property owners.” A further point was that if the members disagreed with the judge there would be no decision and the land sales committee’s decision would stand. REPRESENTATIONS MADE

“I must also, disagree with the Minister’s statement that ‘everyone is agreed on paying tribute to the suitability’ of the the judge and members of the Land Sales Court,” continued Mr Perry. “I have.no desire to pillory any particular person, and consequently I will say that the Minister should know that representations on this matter were made to a committee of the House on Tuesday.” Mr Perry asked for either an improvement in the court or provision for appeals, and said he was supported in this by the New Zealand Law Society. Alleging that the best legal opinion said that the bill did not provide for uniformity in values, Mr Perry urged that the measure be deferred until it could be properly examined and discussed by all interested parties in consultation with the Government.