Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1943. A QUESTION OF METHOD.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 August 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 1943. A QUESTION OF METHOD.

JN Hie House of Representatives last night the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) waxed eloquent and even emotional on the determination of the Government to honour in full the pledge given to our soldiers by his predecessor in office, the late Mr Savage, that when they returned they would find that a real place had been prepared for them in the country they had helped to defend. The Prime Minister could not have been on firmer ground than in expressing this resolve. The pledge that was given by Mr Savage on behalf of the people of the Dominion is one that every New Zealander worthy of the name is determined to honour and uphold. The question raised meantime in Parliament and in the country is whether the passage in its present form of the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Bill would contribute effectively to the fulfilment of this admittedly sacred obligation. As Mr Fraser observed, it is agreed unanimously that there ■must be no exploitation of the members of our fighting forces, on their ret urn, where the acquisition of either farms or homes is concerned. There is complete agreement that the land needed by soldier settlers must be acquired and made available, compulsorily if need be, and that it must be offered to the returned men at prices which will give them every reasonable chance of making good. There was unanimous approval, Mr Fraser contended, of the objectives of the Bill now before Parliament and there had been criticism only of the methods by which it was proposed to approach or attain these objectives. But, he added, the critics of the Bill had not suggested any alternative methods. If better methods could be suggested, the Government would consider them and if it found them io be really better would accept them. The Prime Minister was inaccurate in stating that no alternative methods had been suggested. In and outside Parliament it has been contended that the declared objects of the Government would be much more likely to be attained by concentrating directly and undividedly on the provision of land and homes for returning service men, in conditions dearly stated, and on giving them the utmost protection against exploitation. It has been suggested, too, that in its cumbersome complexity, and particularly in its proposal to bring every land transaction throughout the Dominion under State or bureaucratic control, the Bill is likely to prove unworkable and so to make unattainable the essential objects it is intended to serve. As to the necessity for a clarification and simplification of this proposed legislation, it may be noted that the executive of the New Zealand Returned Services’ Association has urged that the Bill should be divided into two parts and also that all interested parties should be given the opportunity to make representations before the Bill is proceeded with. The Dominion executive of the Second N.Z.E.F. Association also has requested that the Bill be not proceeded with until all sections of the community, especially service men of the present war, have had an opportunity of submitting their views.

A rather curious ambiguity is apparent even in the Government’s own proposals, notably in the amendment of which notice has now been given to limit the operation of the legislation to the remaining period of the war and five years thereafter. This in itself would suggest that the Bill is concerned mainly with transactions entered into by returned service men. But the Bill also provides that during its period of operation all land transactions shall be subject to the control of the Lands Court and Land Sales Committees to be constituted.

If tin's control were to be real and effective it would involve, though only for a definitely limited period, a scrutiny in detail of every transfer of land, by sale or lease, in any part of the Dominion, and therefore the establishment, for that limited period, of a tremendously elaborate and costly mass of new departmental machinery. This probably is impracticable—the Minister of Lands (Mr Barclay), in opening the second reading debate on the Bill, appeared to suggest that approval of many transactions would be almost automatic.

On the other hand it is plainly essential, in the interests of returned service men, that transactions into which they enter should be examined carefully. Here as at other points it seems apparent that the declared objects of the Government, and the bounden. obligations of the Dominion to the members of its fighting .forces, would be served and advanced by a very considerable simplification of the Bill now before Parliament.