SICK OF PROCRASTINATION

Taranaki Daily News, 14 October 1930, Page 9

SICK OF PROCRASTINATION

DELAY IN LAND SETTLEMENT

WAIRARAPA MEMBER’S DEMANDS

ACTION, OR HE WILL RESIGN.

(By Wire— Parliamentary R e P° Wellington, Last Night. Since his election in 1928 as a member of the United Party Mr. T ° W. McDonald (Wairarapa) has the Government unconditionally, b the House to-night he added an empha tic “if” to his continued suppoit. “The sooner the Government takes the bull by the horns and so far <loes its duty as to give effect to its promises in regard to land settlement,” said Mi. McDonald, “the better it Will be_ fol the Government and the country. lam sick and tired of this endless proemfiliation in connection with land settlcm“Tl’ie United Party,” he continued, “came into power with land settlement as one of the principal planks in ita platform. The existing law was not sufficient to enable it to give efleut to the policy, so the' party amended the law last session, taking ample powel for the purpose. So long as a land purchase board was in existence which did not see eye to eye with the policy of the Government —and he submitted tlie present board did not—land settlement in the Dominion would npt be effective. There was only one thing tor the Government to do—do away witn the board. The Native Minister Was invested with discretionary powers enabling him to inaugurate a system oi land development without being encumbered in any way by any retrogressive land purchase board and was carrying out a scheme of land development which was approved from one end of New Zealand to the other. If there was one Minister who should have that power it was tlie Minister of Lands. “I got into Parliament very largely on tins land purchase question,” Mr. McDonald said, “and if loyalty to my party involves disloyalty to my constituents I am going to be loyal to my constituents. I stand for a Government which advocates land settlement, and I will not follow any Government, I don’t care where it comes from, if it will not put into operation forthwith a vigorous policy of settlement of land* I believe this Government will do it, but confidence can be overstrained at times, and I hope it will not come to a case of my confidence being shaken in. the present Government. I am going to force it on the Government vyhether it likes it or not, and even if I stump the country on the question I am going to have land settlement or know the reason why. “I don’t profess to dictate to this Government, but I have stood this inactivity long enough and I am not goino- to stand it any longer without letting the people of my. constituency know where they stand and Where I stand. I am carrying out to the best of my ability what I undertook at the general election in 1928, and if I find I cannot put it into effect I am going to resign. We can fool some of the people some of the time blit we cannot fool all the people all the time. “I want the Government to wake up to its responsibility in this matter,’’ the speaker continued, “and realise its duty not only to the constituents who put them into power but to its own party. The party wants this land settlement, the Government, I am sure, ■wants it, and the country wants it sadly. Why, then, not do it? Simply because the administration is faulty ? That fault is capable of renewal. Have we men at” the /helm strong enough and efficient enough to give effect to what .is required? I have hope, faith and a little charity too, but unless something is done before very long the country will tell the Government in no uncertain way what it must do, not what it would like it to do.”