PRESERVING RIGHTS.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 February 1933, Page 6

PRESERVING RIGHTS.

It is not surprising that one clause of the Small Farms Bill has been held over for further consideration. As originally drafted the new measure would have enabled compulsory acquisition of portions of a landowner’s holding with the only grourids of appeal left open to him that the land was either well used or was required for the maintenance of his own family. Even appeals on either or both of these’grounds were to be limited to a Magistrate whose decision was to be final. The procedure was evidently intended to prevent costly legal proceedings when land was required for small holdings, and it is quite probable that compulsory powers of acquisition would have been very rarely invoked. The whole basis of the Small Farms policy is that of co-operation between existing land .occupiers and the smallholders, but if compulsion is considered desirable it is only right that landowners’ rights should be fully protected. iThe Minister in charge of the Bill, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, has agreed to consider the advisability of amending the proposals and to admit of an appeal to a Judge of the Supreme Court by a landowner whose land it is sought to acquire compulsorily. Probably this will meet most of the objections to the suggested procedure, and it was wise of the House not to hold up the Bill while this one point was considered further. If the provision of small holdings is to do anything towards relieving unemployment during the coming winter the sooner the Bill becomes law the better. There will be plenty of room for its operation without dealing with compulsory acquirements of land, and the sooner the work begins the better.