The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1937 THE MINISTER AND THE CROWN TENANTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20784, 20 July 1937, Page 6

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1937 THE MINISTER AND THE CROWN TENANTS.

Although the Minister of Lands, in a statement we publish in another column in this issue, pretends to cherish nothing but the most profound contempt for the views expressed in an article we published recently on the “Call of the Tenants of the Crown,” it is passing strange that the Minister and his higher officers should have followed most unusual methods in presenting his reply. The Minister will hardly persuade the Crown Tenants (who are most concerned in the question at issue), that no one takes the slightest notice of the newspapers, because he ha’s not only submitted to us a long and cleverly wordecj reply to our appeal on behalf of the Crown Tenants, but copies of his reply appear in both Wellington journals, while a precis of his so-called defence has been circulated through the Press Association. We ought to say by way of rejoinder that we arc not concerned at the moment, whether the Minister of Lands thinks ill or well of the Press. Plainly he has been thoroughly stirred. The whole purpose of our comment was to call attention to the trials and tribulations of the tenants of the Crown, particularly those whose lot has been cast in difficult places. Moreover, we were prompted to discuss at this juncture the claims of the Crown Tenants, because we feel that if the Minister of Lands would make a tour of some of the settlements where tenants of the Crown are struggling against the heavy odds that fall on them in the depths of winter, he would be able to approach the question of revaluation, and all the other questions involved in the claims of the tenants of the Crown, with first-hand knowledge. That the Minister has taken notice is demonstrated in his reply. We are glad, moreover, to notice that the Minister of Lands has not lost sight of the vote of the people of New Zealand at the 1935 election, because that vote was given in return for a wealth of promises that have yet to be redeemed. Moreover, the tenants of the Crown know that the Minister of Lands and his colleagues have been in office for nearly twenty months and all that has happened as far as they are concerned, to quote the president of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union, is that “while other people are to work less and be paid a lot more, the farmers are to work a lot more and be paid a little less.” But were not guaranteed prices designed to solve the settlers’ problems? Perhaps, however, it will calm the Minister’s somewhat ruffled feelings if we tell him that the interests of the tenants of the Crown have always been the concern of this journal—the New Zealand Crown Tenants’ Association had its

birth in Timaru—and before the present Administration secured office, we did not hesitate to criticise the administration of the Lands Department, particularly in relation to the urgent needs of the tenants of the Crown. Indeed, years ago, we suggested that it was the duty of the Minister of Lands to visit the Crown settlements, and fortify himself with information gathered on the spot, rather than remain in Wellington and speak with the voice of the centralised authority. We said that again in the article that has, we are glad to note, forced the Minister to take notice. “I admit that to withhold from Crown Tenants for so long a period the right of revaluation was not in the best interests of the settlers,” the Minister confesses, “but as I have already explained the responsibility for that position must lie with the previous Administration.” In his lengthy statement the Minister shows conclusively, however, that although the former Government revived the right of revaluation, responsibility for holding up the operation of that helpful legislation must be borne by the present Minister, who says he “agreed to postpone consideration of the applications for revaluaton under the Land Act, until after the close of the receipt of applications under the Mortgagors’ and Lessees’ Rehabilitation Act.” These applications, it is well to recall, closed six months ago. The delay, then, on the Minister’s own showing, has been caused by his own legislative acts. The settlers know from grim ' experiences, however, that to-day, after the Government of which Mr Langstone is a member, has been in office some twenty months, their difficulties are greater, because of the failure of the Government to allow them to take advantage of the provisions that were then existing for facilitating immediate relief, coinciding with the everincreasing costs of supplies and services due to the implementation of the Government’s economic policy. The tenants of the Crown, however, have not forgotten a point the Minister of Lands conveniently overlooks, namely, that the previous Administration granted rental concessions of 50 per cent., 33 1-3 per cent., and 25 per cent., varied according to conditions and operating for two, and in some cases, three years. It is passing strange that a member of a Ministry that promised when seeking votes, to present a “pair of runniug shoes” to all boards, commissions and committees, should now shelter behind the cumbersome work of the Adjustment Commission system, especially when the guaranteed price system, of which so much was promised, is operating! The Minister admits that “delays are irksome and dangerous,” but delays still persist. Moreover, there are abandoned holdings in this district which ought to be a special charge on Ministerial concern. The principal points raised in the article have not been contradicted by the Minister; we pointed to the severe difficulties under which a section of the Crown tenants is labouring, particularly in the present severe winter and the need for immediate relief, but the Minister replies by referring to Adjustment Commissions and blamiug the last Government. Our criticism was based on definite information collected from settlers now struggling against almost insurmountable difficulties that have been substantially aggravated by rising costs in all directions. It is just as well for the Minister to realise, however, that the tenants of the Crown and settlers generally are too widely alert and too well acquainted with their own problems to tolerate further “Irksome and annoying delays” without feeling that not a very big share of the relief so fulsomely promised in 1935 is coming to them.