LAND SALES BILL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 August 1943, Page 4

LAND SALES BILL

DENOUNCED BY ASSOCIATED CHAMBERS AS OUTRAGEOUS RESTRICTION ON FREEDOM. APART FROM ANY QUESTION OF SOLDIER SETTLEMENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, August 7. “We are astonished at the temerity of the Minister of Lands (Mr Barclay) in claiming the assured support of Chambers of Commerce for the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Bill,” says a statement issued today by the Associated Chambers of Commece of Nev; Zealand.” “It is true (the statement adds) tlVu Chambers of Commerce have urged on the Government the necessity for making early provision for the economic settlement of returned soldiers on the land. In so far .as this Bill, or any other Bill that may be introduced by the Government, promises to facilitate the settlement of returned soldiers on the land on terms that give such soldiers an assured opportunity of success, and on terms fair and equitable to those landowners whose property might be acquired by the Government for the purpose, it will have the wholehearted support, not only of Chambers of Commerce, but of all right-minded citizens, even if one effect of such a Bill might be to throw some added burden on the taxpayers. The Bill introduced, however, apart altogether from the'provisions for soldier settlement, which provisions we have not sufficient knowledge of yet to either support or criticise, uses the public demand for soldier settlement to cloak an attempt on ihe part of the Government to promote its policy of land nationalisation. As distinct from the question of soldier settlement, it. places further restrictions an the rights and liberties of every citizen who has a sufficient stake in the country to have an interest in the ownership of freehold or leasehold, property. It proposes to set up still another system of amateur courts and committees of its own nomination, with exceptional powers also to deny all landholders any freedom at all in dealing with their own property, and even to deny them access to the highest courts of the land in seeking justice. Indeed, the Bill proposes to set up in this country a system that outrages all the principles which free citizens of this country are at present defending in the greatest war of all time. The Minister can expect for the unjust sections of the Bill the opposition they deserve from freedom-loving citizens of the Dominion.”