Strong Opposition to Compulsory Land Acquisition

Northland Age, Volume XVIII, Issue 41, 25 February 1949, Page 1

Strong Opposition to Compulsory Land Acquisition

Federated Farmers Form Protective Committee

When the Kaitaia branch of the Federated Farmers met yesterday in the Parish Hall, there was a good attendance over which Mr. J. Morrison, the president of the branch, presided. When the matter of action that had been taken in other parts of the country by way of compulsorily acquiringfarming lands, many members present were very outspoken in their criticism of such cavalier treatment by the government. Mr. T. S. Houston stated that he was of the opinion that farmers had been, and were being treated shamefully in this matter. He went on to state that there were t many farmers who had passed the 1 prime of life, and those best years had been spent in building up a farm from j virtually only rough scrub land. | They had built a comfortable home, | they had built farm buildings, and had S got together a herd and all those j thing's which go with such acquisites | and were by then content to settle I down for the remainder of their days. It would be a dastardly thing to do I to uproot these men from their homes | in such a manner, and expect them j to make another home for themselves, j Mr. Pai-ker also spoke strongly in j support of Mr. and said that I the chairman’s suggestion that a proi tective committee should be set up 1 was a good one. Mr. A. W. Masters pointed out that j there should be no need to acquire : farms that were the going concern of probably some pioner who had carved the farm from virgin scrub with ! only a builock team. He went on to say that there was any amount of land in the north that was first class farming land, and if

■» only the government would give aid by machinery and consideration to ! these young' men who were to be rehabilitated on to the land then there would be no need to acquire those farms that were going concerns. “We are called on for production, and more production, but can anyone tell me that we are going to produce more by taking a farm from one man to give to another?” Mr. Masters concluded. “What we want is more land opened up, and we’ve got to protect the man that owns the farm at the present time.” Mr. Kendrick in supporting the other speakers, said : “They are only using rehabilitation as a cloak for nationalisation. They are out to nationalise the land, whereas if they said to the young returned serviceman, here is the land, here is the machinery, here is assistance to build a home and sheds, here is grass seed at a reasonable price, and likewise manure, how you are on your own, the young serviceman would appreciate this more. “Don’t let them fool you. They want to and are using rehabilitation as a cloak for nationalisation,” concluded Mr. Kendrick. On a motion sponsored by Mr. T. S. Houston and Mr. J. Stewart, it was decided to set up a committee of three members with an invitation to othei local branches to send delegates to this committee, with the object of protecting those farmers who were not desirous of selling' their holdings under this compulsory measure relating to the Land Sales Amendment Act. Members of the committee elected without opposition were Messrs. A. W. Masters, J. Morrison and T. J. Berghan.