LAND SALES BILL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1943, Page 3

LAND SALES BILL

VIEWS OF WAIRARAPA DISTRICT MEMBERS. SPEECHES IN PARLIAMENT YESTERDAY. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The second reading debate on the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Bill was continued in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, anc^ during the evening sitting until the House rose at 11.30 p.m. Amongst those who took part in the debate were the member for Masterton (Mr J. Robertson) and the member for Wairarapa (Mr B. Roberts). Mr Robertson said that one of the twin objectives of the Bill was stabilisation of land values, and postponement of the measure till after the general election, as suggested by the Opposition, would be fatal to that objective, in which the Opposition professed to believe. No alternative proposal to that in the Bill had been put forward by the Ooposition. The Bill was meant to be read in conjunction with other legislation. The machinery Would be similar to the mortgage rehabilitation legislation of a few years ago for the adjustment of mortgages. Mr Roberts stated that he had not received one protest against the Bill. He contended that if the Opposition had its way a flood of speculation would be let loose on the country. The land laws of the Dominion should be based on the goed farming of the land, and not on the farming of the farmer. “We have reached the point where the sincerity of the Opposition in its approval of the principle of land stabilisation is to be tested,” continued Mr Roberts. “What alternative have they to offer to the present proposals? If the Bill is not passed it will show that we have not learned the lessons of settlement after the last war.”