POSTPONEMENT URGED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 3, 31 August 1943, Page 7

POSTPONEMENT URGED

THE LAND SALES BILL LOCAL M.P.'S EFFORTS An exhortation to the Government to postpone the passage of the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Bill until the Returned Services Association, the Farmers' Union and other bodies could assist and bring a lull knowledge to bear on the subject and. submit their views fully was made by Mr W. Sullivan, M.P. for Bay of Plenty Avhen speaking on the second reading of the Bill in the House of Representatives. Mr Sullivan said that the Opposition would never agree that any property owner should profit out of the establishment of. returned soldiers on* the land. None wanted to see property purchased for returned men at high speculative prices. They wanted to sec properties bought at a fair value and handed over to the returned men on their productive value. Mr Sullivan said he advocated all along that blocks for settlement should be selected where there were, present day facilities —roads and other conveniences, and as near as possible to a settlement. Bf it came to the question of meeting the gap created in acquiring land and establishing the soldier on the land, then let the men who remained behind bridge that gap by paying for it. He wanted to see large holdings that were roaded and which had up-to-date facilities taken for subdivision., and he wanted to see the subdivision carried out as far as possible on an economic basis. It was the duty of every industry and every business of any consequence, to provide avenues of employment for the men who had gone; overseas. Likewise it was the duty of the Government to provide every possible avenue to rehabilitate those, men on a sound, successfuj basis. Criticising the provisions of the Bill, Mr SuWivan said that a property owner who was dissatisfied with the; treatment received at the hands of the Land Sales Committee or the Land Sales Court should have the. right of appeal to a higher court. It was going too far to give the Land Sales Committee the right to choose, the purchaser and to dictate to him the purpose to which the land, should be put. He also pointed out that immediately a serviceman returned his land could be taken. How were men to be rehabilitated in business? There were restrictions left and right. What would be done in the case of men who desired to establish themselves, in business and who were unable to get sufficient stock. How ■WCI-β the Land Sales Committees to be constituted? One might ask, why the necessity for the Bill at all? Under the Lands for Settlement Act,, 1925 the Government had all the power they required for the taking of land, but there was provision there that the owner might retain a portion of his land. No such provision existed in the present Bill.