ELECTION RESULTS

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLXII, Issue 15467, 30 September 1943, Page 4

ELECTION RESULTS

PROTEST AGAINST LAND BILL Electric Telegrapli—Press Association WELLINGTON, Sept. 28. “Results of the election show clearly the farming community lias registered a most emphatic pirotost against tlie Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act,” said Mr Walter Horrobin, Domipion treasurer o the New Zealand Farmers’ Unjon today. '‘There is not oipe rural electorate in the Dominion where the Govern men has been given any real support by the farmers“As the majority of farmers today are returned men of 1914-18 it is also an indication of what these men think of the Oovermnent’s actio© in making use of the title ‘Servicemen’s Settlement’ in an Act designed to take away from returned scldiers the protection they had under the Lands for Settlement Act. The loss of his seat by the Minister of Agriculture in so decided a fashion is a sacrifice which Mr Barclay lias been made to offer on the altar of sectional interests and can b© largely set down to the passing of the Land Sales Act. “The Prime Minister must now decide whether ho is going to govern th© country in accordance with the wishes only of the Labour Party or whether ho will govern it in accordawe with tho interests of the cf untry as a whole. If Mr Fraser desires to obtain the wholehearted

co-operation of all sections of the community, then he cannot ignore ii dications given by the poll. “In these circumstances it is to be hoped and expected that the Government will consult representatives of the forming community and will endeavour to get agreement with them, particularly with a view to bringing forward a Servicemen’s Settlement Act and Land Sales Act loth Acts designed to enable New Zealand to make the finest possible job of enabling her returned men to go on the land. “Such an action would go a long way towards giving farmers some encouragement in the strenuous efforts which they are making to arrest the decline in production. “Tt would also go a long way towards restoring co-operation which has long been lacking between the fanning community and the Government but which is urgently necessary for the most efficient prosecution of New Zealand’s part in the war.”