TALK GOES ON

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 403, 11 July 1928, Page 1

TALK GOES ON

LAND POLICY KEEPS DEBATE ALIVE

MR. RANSOM’S ATTACK

(THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, To-day. Land settlement was a theme which formed a strong thread running through the Address-in-Reply debate yesterday. The subject was introduced in the first speech of the day by Mr. E. A. Ransom (Pahiatua), who showed that he has not forgotten his little brush with the Minister of Lands on the same subject during the recess. Mr. Ransom blamed the Government’s immigration policy, and its lack of a sound land settlement policy, for the wave of unemployment The policy of the Lands Department on land settlement appeared to be to stand by and do nothing. The Te Wera purchase, referred to by the Hon. A. D. McLeod on Friday, he termed a colossal blunder. The Minister did not see the block before purchasing it. Mr. J. A. Lee: He bought it with his eyes shut. Mr. Ransom proceeded to recite the failings of Te Wera as a land settlement effort, in which he was followed, item by item, by Mr. W. D. Lysnar (Gisborne), chanting a sort of litany of contradictions, until Mr. Speaker called curtly for order. The Minister, said Mr. Ransom, stood condemned for the same reason as he had condemned the Liberals, that he had put settlers on the land without providing road access. There was land in the Woodville district eminently more suited to closer settlement, but it was held in large blocks by absentee land owners who owned large properties throughout H.B. “Be accurate,” implored Mr. V. Potter, in the course of Mr. Ransom’s address, in which the speaker was in one instance cut short while quoting from the Auckland Sun an article on the subject of large flocks in New Zealand. Mr. Speaker’s ruling in this was that the private business of members of the House was concerned in the disclosures. Mr. Ransom was, however, able to point out that in Mr. McLeod’s own district the Riddiford family owned flocks aggregating 106,000 sheep. The rise of 4Sd in the price of wool last season meant £20,000 to that family, yet all of that sum was exempt from income tax. REFORM VIRTUES The Hon. O. J. Hawken, Minister of .Agriculture, cited the virtues of the Reform policy in a speech in which he pointed to the increased production throughout the country as a vindication of the Government’s efforts on behalf of the man on the land. “The proposals of the Labour Party.” said Mr. Hawken, “are an attempt to bribe the electors. The Reform Party has never resorted to those means.” “It seems to me economy gone mad,” said Mr. D. G. Sullivan (Avon), getting away from land settlement in his general indictment of the Government’s policy, “to curtail such essential services as the health and education services of the country.” He referred to overcrowding in sanatoria, and to the fact that tuberculosis victims had died while waiting to get into the Cashmere Hills sanatorium, Christchurch. The speakers during the evening were Messrs. Sullivan, Lysnar, Horn and Savage. Mr. Sullivan concluded by emphasising that the housing shortage still existed, and quoted figures in support of this contention. CANDID FRIEND Mr. Lysnar took the opportunity to assert his position as an Independent and appeared in the role of the candid friend of the Government. As exj pected he attacked the Meat Board and Dairy Control Board as at present constituted. Mr. Horn’s speech dealt largely with matters affecting his own constituency, and Mr. Rhodes appeared chiefly concerned with the country’s gratifying trade recovery. Mr. Savage criticised the Government's financial methods, pointing out with regard to the payment of war debts that there was no distinction between war debts and any other debts as far as the burden on the country is concerned. “This Government,” he said, “has bungled everything from Arapuni to Otago.” He was inclined to the same opinion as that of Professor Murphy that New Zealand’s finance had left as a heritage a bundle of overvalued public assets.