FARMERS' OPINIONS

Chronicle (Levin), 7 December 1948, Page 6

FARMERS' OPINIONS

(Tlie: items/below ai'e supplied by Federated ^armers of New Zealand. The information g-iven is official but any viovvs expressed are those of the. Federation and are not necessarily those of this newspaper.) The Land Bill. Major atteiition of Federated Farmers recently has been devoted to detailed' considerations of the Land Bill ihMerai^.the House of Eepresentatives. •By eourtesy of tlie Minister of Lands, !an offieer of liis department conferred with Federation representatives and explained the.implications of the; various claus'es * iiv-tire consolidating nieasure. Tlie Fedprfftion then made representations incp'rporating some suggestion for ameiidmcnt, To a Federation proposal for tlie continuation of elected Land Boards, the Minister has-' now replied tliat he figreed that tlie Boards had perforwed a valuable service in tlie adminstration of Crown Lands, but, by successive amendnients of legislation, their powers had lieeh eurtailedAo tliat today they adminstered only education reservcs and a few small matters under tlie. Land Aet. Otherwise they 'were almost whollv a recommending body. They had nothiug to do with the purcliasing of privately owned land or with the development of Crown Land. Noi did they adminster the Small Farms Act under wliich ex-servicemen were settled. All those matters were eontrolled by the Land Settlenient Board in Wellington which in turn delegated certain adininstrative matters to th^ local Gommissioners of Crown Laiuu and operated with Rehabilitation Farming Sub-Committees in the settlement of ex-servicemen. ^

Under the new Bill, said Mr. Skinner, the Land Settlement Board wouli] delegato many bf its powers to tho Land Settlement Gommittees. WhetJier lliose local organisalionS were calie'l Land .Settlement Committees or Land Boards did not greatly matter but a.i the ccntraj authorily was designated a Board it was consjidered appropriato that the local authoritv should be called a committee. Tlie .Minister agreed thai there was 110 provision for tlie electiou of a Crown tenant representative 011 those committees, but it had to be rememl/tered that in the past little inter esf had been taken by Crown tenants in Land Board elections. So far as appointments to the Board and Committees were concerned, tlie Minister gavc the Federation an asuirance that 'Jpersons appointed would liave a ''practical and current knowledge of farming." They would be nien cajiable of makiug s" constructive contributions to the problems" before tho Board or the Committees,. as the Federation desired. Such descriptions as projiosed by the Federation could not be wjsitten in the Bill; they were questions of fact applicable .to the appointed persons. The Minister said, how;ev'er, he cbuld not agree to the request fo^Vederated Farmers that those ap-poiirtment-s/ should be made on the rec ommendation of tlie Federation. There was 110 more justification for giving Federated Farmers the rigTrt to uomin ate rneuibers to the Board or to Com mittecs than there was for pennitting olher organisations such as the Righ ('ountry Runliolders' Conunittee or the Crown* Tenants' Association to make j iioniinntions. ..Only persons qualilled tc

deal with the problems eonfronting the Board or the Committees would, however, be appointed. The Minister pointed out that more than oue Land Settlement Committee might be appointed for each Land Dis trict and in the big'gcr districts that was certain to be done. it would so be possible to get specialised representatives 011 the Committees and that would be an improvemcnt on the old Boai'd system wliereby there was but oue Boai'd per Land District. Kepresentations on many matters by the Federation are still proc'ceding atid replies are being received from the Minister to the proposals offered and to tlie many points bcing queried.