STRONG PROTEST

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

STRONG PROTEST

NORTH CANTERBURY FARMERS PROVISIONS OF LAND BILL (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH. Aug. 11. “While the North Canterbury Provincial Executive of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union is in favour of measures for th§ rehabilitation of returned servicemen, we enter an emphatic protest against the Servicemen’s Settle--ment and Land Sales Bill, which is definitely opposed to the principles of British justice. Under the pretence of assisting our servicemen, it introduces measures of Socialism, which are anathema to those who value the principles of the freehold which constitute some of the greatest privileges of our British heritage. We accordingly ask that the empowering legislation be deferred until the new Parliament msets to give more time for its consideration.” This resolution was carried unanimously by a special meeting of the executive in Christchurch to-day, when the Dominion president, Mr W. W. Mulholland, discussed some of the implications of the Bill. " This is the most far-reaching and vicious attack on property made in any British country to date,” Mr Mulholland said. “We want only to keep our country on a sane and proper basis, but inside 20 years under this legislation it would be possible for every freehold property to come under Government leasehold. “ The Bill is alleged to be for soldiers’ settlement, but it will do more to retard that than anything else I can imagine,” Mr Northland said. Most of the servicemen who desired to do so would settle on the land privately, and a large number would take over their fathers’ farms. Unless made by direct gift, such transactions would come under the jurisdiction of the land committees or the courts, which would have complete power. The land of a man overseas could not be taken, but immediately he returned he was open to the implications of the Bill. More than 20 per cent, of the land in New Zealand would change hands after the war, when five or six years of delayed transactions would be made up. This indicated the immense effect the Bill could have almost immediately. “We will probably have trade union secretaries and unsuccessful politicians as the two laymen on each committee,” Mr Mulholland added, “ and they will have the power to over-rule the president, who must be eligible for the Supreme Court. This strikes at the very roots of British justice. These comhiittees will have the final say in dealing with hundreds of millions of pounds of property, and yet they may be completely controlled by the Government. Some measures are necessary for soldier settlement and the prevention of inflation, but I personally feel that the limitation of mortgages would effectively secure this result.”