SMALL FARMS ACT

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21336, 6 February 1941, Page 12

SMALL FARMS ACT

MR LEE MARTIN EXPLAINS MEETING AT WHATAWHATA MANY QUESTIONS ASKED In a large number of questions asked the Hon. W. Lee Martin, M.P. for Raglan, and until recently Minister of Agriculture, at a meeting held at Whatawhata last night, those bearing on the Small Farms Act recently passed by Parliament were in the majority. There was a large attendance, and Mr H. Johnstone was voted to the chair. Mr Lee Martin gave a brief but comprehensive review of the main features of the Small Farms Act, and at the close a large number of questions on aspects of the legislation was asked. The replies were in some respects considered insufficient to allay the fears of many farmers that the settlement provisions for returned soldiers were not the principal purpose of the legislation. Landowner’s Rights One questioner asked if the landowner really had any rights left under the Act. Mr Lee Martin said that was a difficult question to answer in the brief time available. He thought there was provision for safeguarding the interests of the landowner. If a farmer with sheep on 400 acres had three-fourths of the area taken over to make three dairy farms, what would be the position of the sheepman, with only 100 acres? Would he have to start again in a new sphere of primary production, dairying? was a double-barrelled query. Mr Lee Martin said that possibility was not at all likely to happen, though he would concede that it could happen. Rights of Succession Some of those present also referred to the rights of succession in respect to lands taken over by returned soldiers, but Mr Lee Martin said those rights would not be interfered with at all. There was certainly no occasion for concern on that score. Mr Lee Martin indicated that he proposed to tour his electorate later in the present year, but he would not be seeking re-election to Parliament. He was accorded a vote of thanks, on the motion of Messrs C. Lovell and F. L. Onion, the latter voicing the regret felt by so many farmers in the Raglan electorate and elsewhere that Mr Lee Martin had relinquished the position of Minister of Agriculture.