FARM SALES

Waikato Times, Volume 194, Issue 22246, 15 January 1944, Page 4

FARM SALES

VENDORS UNWILLING

UNEXPECTED SITUATION EFFECT OF LEGISLATION An unexpected situation is claimed by estate agents to have arisen from 1 the operation of the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act as it effacts farm lands. The primary cause is the provision enabling the Government, once a transaction is brought before a land sales committee, to acquire the property at the price fixed by the committee. The consequence, it is claimed, is that prospective ‘ vendors of farm lands are withdrawing their properjties from the agents’ hands. Developments had occurred which ! the. Government had probably not i foreseen when the Act was passed, isaid Mr H. D. Matthews, of Hamilton, today. As an illustration Mr Matthews said an owner might be willing to sell at £SOOO and a pur- | chaser be ready to pay that price. | The Land Sales Committee decided that £4OOO was the basic value of the land. This the vendor would not accept. Cannot Withdraw “He cannot withdraw the property,” said Mr Matthews, “for the Government has the right to acquire it for rehabilitation at the £4OOO. My reading of the Act—and I believe !it is a correct interpretation—is that ; once the proposal to sell is submitted ito the Land Sales Committee the i Government has the right to acquire the land at the price fixed by the committee, irrespectvie of whether the price is within measurable distance of that which a private purchaser is willing to pay. “The natural consequence is that farmers right and left are withdrawing their properties from agents’ hands. Ask any land salesman and he will confirm that statement. The Government has very effectively prevented sales as far as farm properties are concerned, and the farms most affected are the better-farmed properties.” Government to be Approached Mr Matthews said he had conferred with most of the estate agents in the district and had been assured that few farm properties were on their books for sale. The position was regarded as so serious that representations were to be made to the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, as soon as he returned from Australia, explaining the effect of the legislation and suggesting the withdrawal of the clause which had had suen a far-reaching result. Agents had not been informed when the next sitting of the South Auckland Land Sales Committee would take place in Hamilton, said Mr Matthews. He thought the com*mittee would not be troubled with applications to approve sales of farm lands but would be occupied almost solely with consideration of house property deals. These, it was understood, were not affected in respect of selling to the Government at the committee’s valuation. Few Farm Applications Mr G. Boyes, of Hamilton, said there was no indication of the number of applications to go before the South Auckland Committee. Up to the end of December the number was between 200 and 250. The committee had not sat in Hamilton since mid-December, and presumably some of the applications had been dealt with in Auckland. Mr Boyes said he believed the number of applications affecting farm properties was small. As in Auckland few Waikato farms of considerable size and classifiable as economic units had been the subject of applications.