- (1) The power of a council to council land for small holdings under the principal Act shall not be exercised during the period ending on the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, except with the previous consent of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, or after the thirty-first day of March, nineteen hundred and twenty-six, except at such a price or rent or for such an annuity as in the opinion of the council will allow all expenses incurred by the council in relation to the land to be recouped out of the purchase money or rent to be obtained by the council for the land.
- (2) Sub-section (3) of Section seven of the principal Act (which regulates the price or rent which land for small holdings may be acquired) shall cease to have effect.
- (3) This Section shall be deemed to have had effect as from the first day of January, nineteen hundred and nineteen.
§ Major LANE-FOXI beg to move, to leave out Sub-section (3).
This Amendment must be read in eon-junction with my next Amendment, which gives power to the council to acquire land without the consent of the Board of Agriculture, and the Sub-section which I am now moving to omit would make that retrospective as from the first day of January, 1919. I do not want it to be made retrospective, and, therefore, I propose to insert the further Amendment which stands in my name, which provides that the council shall still have the power to purchase land without the previous con- 1236 sent of the Board of Agriculture, but in the event of a purchase without such consent the council is not to be entitled to recoupment of losses under the provisions of Sub-section (2) of Sections 22 and 23 of this Act, in respect of purchase money paid after the date of the operation of the Act. It must be obvious to everyone that in many cases it will be impossible for a council to get the consent of the Board of Agriculture previously to the transaction, and it may be extremely necessary that for the purpose of securing—