FREEHOLD RIGHTS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20049, 22 September 1939, Page 4

FREEHOLD RIGHTS

SMALL FARM SETTLERS ELIMINATION OPPOSED NATIONALIST OPINIONS PLEA IN HOUSE REJECTED 'Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. A strong protest against the elimination of the rights of settlers on small farms to obtain the freehold to their properties was voiced by Mr. A. N. Grigg (Nat. Mid-Canterbury) and ( many other Nationalist members in the House of Representatives when •the Small Farms Amendment BilL was under discussion.

Mr. Grigg said that the right to the freehold was one of the privileges held by a democratic people. It was a principle that should be closely guarded. The principle had been firmly established in New Zealand and the Government required good reason before taking away rights that had been given to the people by its predecessors.

Mr. Grigg said that the Minister of Lands had offered the excuse that the, occupiers of small farms were not evercising their right to acquire the freehold. This was not a sound argument. Because people were not acquiring the freehold to-day, it could not bo said that they did not desire to own their farms at some time in tho future. Right to Exercise Privilege Their right to exercise their privilege when it best suited them to do so should not bo taken away. Beneath the surface of the statements that had been made by the Minister could be detected the Government's policy, added Mr. Grigg. The freehold was to be eliminated. The principle was seen in the Slate housing scheme, under which people were being provided with houses, but not with homes. Unless the people owned their houses, they could not regard them as their homes. The same principle was being steadily extended to small farms. When the bill was in committee there were two opportunities to challenge clauses which, if deleted, would have retained the right to tho freehold, but the Opposition amendments were defeated on party lines.