LAND SALES BILL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1943, Page 3

LAND SALES BILL

SECOND READING DEBATE URGENCY CLAIMED FOR MEASURE. SPEECH BY FINANCE MINISTER. (By 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 all day yesterday, arguments both for and against the Bill being, along similar lines to those used by previous speakers in the debate. Urgency was again taken for the measure, the Acting Leader of the House, Mr Sullivan, stating that it was proposed to ask the co-operation of the House in passing the second reading and short title of the Bill in committee at yesterday’s sitting. It was desirable the Bill should be passed into law this week. ALLEGATION REPUDIATED. Tiic allegation of the member for Tauranga that a Minister of the Crown was associated with the purchase of land in that electorate was repudiated by the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash. He said inquiries had been made and no Minister was interested in any such transaction and the member should in decency withdraw his statement. Tlie Bill was framed on. the principles which had been publicly called for by the Returned Services’ Association, leading newspapers, the president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, the president of the National Party and the Loader of the Opposition himself in public speeches at several places. The Minister quoted from their statements and claimed that every desired point excepting that of the freehold was contained in the Bill. Referring to the land boom after the last war. Mr Nash said that from 1916 to 1929 the land of this country rose from a value of £437 an acre to £2068. <ln that same period 33.782,648 acres of land changed hands, the amount involved in the transactions being £293,532,790, out of which was paid to land agents in commission, in legal fees and stamp duties £14,676,6-10. "There was not one blade of grass grown for that vast sum paid in commission and fees,” added the Minister. LAND BOOM EXAMPLE. In one instance, said Mr Nash, a block of land at Eltham was sold six times in two years, the prise rising from £3O an acre to £95 an acre. At the last sale there were five mortgages on the property and the payments for commission and fees amounted to £lB 16s 3d an acre. The man owning the farm at the finish had to earn £507 a year to pay the interest on the last mortgage. In the first seven months of this year, continued the Minister, the transactions in land had increased 33 per cent in .respect of urban properties over the same period last year, and 29 per cent in respect of country land. The average increase in value of town land was 20 per cent, and for country land 30 per cent. There had been £19,108,000 involved in these transactions. The Minister claimed that was definite evidence that an incipient land boom was at hand and the Bill was designed to prevent it. The position was that either this Eill had to be put into operation or the sales of land must be stopped altogether. He said the objections of the New Zealand Law Society would be met by the amendments which the Government had said it would introduce.

The genuine working farmer would not -be touched by the Bill and he had nothing to fear. He was the man who would be protected from the land speculator and the land agent who came along with tempting offers. There was nothing in the Bill suggesting that houses would be taken compulsorily. The powers to acquire land applied only to farming lands for the settlement of returned men. What the Bill did, however, was to protect the homeowner from selling his home at one figure and then having to pay a higher one to secure another home. BILL CONDEMNED. Condemnation of the Bill as clumsy, unworkable, inequitable and impracticable was expressed by the Minister in Charge of War Expenditure, Mr Hamilton. CLOSURE APPLIED OPPOSITION AMENDMENT LOST. SECOND READING CARRIED. (By Telegraph-Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Continuing the debate on the second reading of the Service Men’s Settlement and Land Sales Bill in the House of Representatives after midnight, Mr W. J. Broadfoot (Opposition Waitomo) moved and Mr J. A. M. Roy (Opposition, Clutha) seconded an amendment: "That while affirming the principle of the rehabilitating of service men on the land on generous terms, and recognising the need for the stabilisation of land values, this House considers the present Bill should be postponed till after the general election.” Mr Broadfoot set out in his amendment eight' reasons for seeking a postponement, and they summarised the Opposition’s objections to the immediate passing of the present Bill.

The debate continued until 2.42 a.m. when the Primo Minister applied the closure, with the formal motion that the question be now put. Mr W. A. Bodkin (Opposition, Central Otago) asked the Speaker not to put the motion to the House, saying the closure should not be put as a matter of right, and the matter was at the Speaker’s discretion. The Speaker, Mr W. E. Barnard, said that the debate on the second reading was now in its fourth day, and nearly thirty-one hours had been spent on it. AU the members of the Opposition had spoken, and most of the ground covered by the amendment had also been covered in the debate. The speaker then put Mr Fraser’s motion. A division was called for, and the closure motion was carried at 2.47 a.m. by 43 votes to 20. The division was on purely party lines, the Independents, Messrs Kyle and Wilkinson, voting against the motion, and Mr Atmore for it. Mr Broadfoot’s amendment was defeated, and thd second reading carried by 43 votes to 20 in two more divisions.

The House rose at 3.15 a.m. till 2.30 p.m. today, when the Bill is set down for the committee stage. During the day nineteen speakers took part in the debate, making a total of forty since the debate began.