NATIONALISATION POLICY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25302, 12 August 1943, Page 4

NATIONALISATION POLICY

GOVERNMENT ATTACKED (F.0.P.R.) WELLINGTON, Aug. 11. “The policy of this Government is to nationalise the land, and that is precisely what this Bill sets out to do,” said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland, during the debate on the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Bill in the House of Representatives to-night. The need for soldier settlement, he added, was being used to cloak the real intention and determination of the Government. Mr Holland, who was speaking in the debate for the first time in this session, said it was obvious from the speech of the Minister of Lands that the Bill was an ill-considered measure. On many points of the Bill there would be general agreement. All would agree that a great many of the soldiers would want to settle on the land, and the Opposition and the Government alike acknowledged the right of soldiers to have some land. There would also be general agreement that settlement must be oh a sound basis. The soldiers wanted only a reasonable opportunity to make good, and they were prepared to work hard for their success. The Opposition was just as keen as anyone to help in a solution of the problem of soldier settlement. The average soldier did not want to see his success achieved at the expense of other people. Mr Holland said he was not one who held that everything that was done after the last war was a mistake, although there had been some heartbreaking experiences. A great many men who had been settled on the land had made a great success of their ventures. The payment of high prices for land and the settlement of men with no previous experience were two mistakes made after the last war. Cause of Inflated Values Discussing the cause of inflated 'land values, Mr Holland said he believed they were due in the main to the desire of thrifty people for security in the investment of their savings. To these people the land offered some attraction. High land values were bad for New Zealand, for they caused increased costs which could not be deflated when normal times returned without human misery. He believed everyone in the House was opposed to speculation and inflated values, although there might be differences of opinion as to the best means of controlling the situation. "I suggest that this Bill is misnamed, said Mr Holland. “It has nothing to do with the settlement of soldiers and could be more appropriately named the State Control and Nationalisation of Land Bill. The Minister did not read us one telegram or letter of protest against the Bill. Has he had any? ” The Minister of Lands, Mr Barclay: Two or three from farmers’ unions which have not read the Bill. Mr Holland: In this Bill there is not one word as to how soldiers will be settled on the land or how they are to be financed. Mr A. G. Osborne (Govt., Onehunga): That is in the Rehabilitation Act. The Minister: There is a 100 per cent, advance. _ , " I wonder if the member for Onehunga can tell me where there is any reference to the tenure that will be granted to the men settled under this Bill,, said Mr Holland. “The Minister did not say the Government found itself ht cross-purposes with the Returned Services’ Association, which wanted the freehold.” The Minister : I said the freehold had been given with State Advances purchases. * Mr Holland: How many men have been given the freehold under the Small Farms Act? The Minister: We are giving it all the time. Tenants of the State Mr Holland said the Bill exposed the fact that after nearly four years the Government had no plan for the settlement of soldiers. It provided for pure and unadulterated State control of all land transactions. “ This Bill is aimed at the owner of any landed property in this country,” said Mr Holland. No person who owns a section in the towns or at the seaside, or who owns a farm, factory, or shop will be able to disposp of it without a permit. It will come as a surprise to the people who have purchased homes to know that their freedom to do what they like with their own property has been taken away from them. The policy of this Government is to destroy private ownership and to make everyone tenants of the State, and that is what this Bill does.” Mr Holland said that the soldiers would protest against the measure when they realised that their rights had been filched. The stranglehold of bureaucracy was being applied tighter and tighter, and the Bill was just another instalment of State Socialism. The Government' was applying its domestic policv in war-time and using the name of soldier to cloak its intentions. The Bill would destroy private ownership of the land. It denied the right to the freehold. A The old and tried methods of constituting courts were to be done away with, Mr Holland added. The Government would take land after appointing the three members of the court, and the vendor would find that the dice were heavily loaded against him. The Bill established a huge department of State, and the increased costs would be loaded on to the people. Mr Holland said the first thing required was an immediate survey of the farm lands of the Dominion to find out what areas were available for closer settlement. That was overdue. Land should not be sold without authority at a higher price than was paid for it. This, he claimed, would be an effective curb to speculation.—(Government laughter.) Mr Barclay: But that would take away individual freedom to buy and sell land, would it not? It would be State control. Mr Holland: No, of course it would not. Source of Finance Continuing, Mr Holland said that the settlement of soldiers on the land could be financed by the country. “If this Dominion can afford the finance to fight the war, then it can afford the money to settle the returning men on the land,” he said. Government members: Where is the money coming from? Mr Holland: From the same source as we get it for the war. The scope of the land boards should be extended to determine a fair basis for the value of the land on which it was proposed to settle soldiers, Mr Holland continued. If the Opposition became the Government it would see that the men who were settled by the State were not allowed to traffic in the land they acquired. The Bill would be sternly contested by the Opposition. It should be postponed until something more practicable had been worked out.