ENDOWMENT LANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LI, Issue 248, 16 October 1920, Page 7

ENDOWMENT LANDS.

PORTION TO BE SOLD. BAH* OF PRESENT VALUES. I FUND TO BE INVESTED. (Bj Telegraph.—Parliemenurj Bfjrorter.) WELLINGTON, Friday. An amendment to the Land Act was introduced and read the first time tonight. The Minister of Lands explained that it provided for a number of administrative matters, including an improved method of balloting by returned soldiers and disposal of small areas of waste lands which were not. worth the expense of advertising. O.R.P. tenants were being given the right to surrender a portion of their holding where they held more than they could manage There was also a provision to deal with a portion of the National Endowment lands in order to bring the homestead system into force. Mr. Wilford: Does it mean selling the endowments? Mr. Guthrie: The. Government will take them over and the value of the land as ascertained by valuation is placed to the credit of the National Endowment Fund. Mr. Wilford: You get rid of the land and have the money? Mr. Guthrie: We invest it. He further explained that the land would be dealt with in three ways—by granting a lease of which freehold would be given to the tenants in five or ten years when they had improved the area. It was proposed to revive for five years the right of lease in perpetuity tenants to convert to the freehold.. Clause 11 of the bill provides that no further land shall become a national endowment by reason of the operation of section 258 of the Land Act 1908. which provides that certain renewable leases and email grazing runs shall become part of the endowment. The Gov-ernor-General may by ■proclamation declare that (a) any unoccupied National Endowment land not exceeding in aggregate ten thousand acres, or (b) any National Endowment land disposed of under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act 1915, or (c) any National Endowment land disposed of under the Land Act 1908 held under lease or license by any person who is competent to acquire land under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act 1915. shall, as from a date to be specified in a proclamation, cease to be National Endowment land. Special valuation of these areas shall be made by the ValuerGeneral, and the money derived from the sale of the endowment lands shall be invested and the proceeds applied to education and old age pensions. Payment to members of land boarrl for attendance at meetings is increased from £1 to 30/. A lengthy clause details the procedure for inquiries by the commissioners appointed by the Governor-in-Council to inquire into the charges of wrongfully acquirinc Crown landu, native lands, or private lands. Persons who fail to appear when summoned or refuse to produce documents are liable to two years' imprisonment, or a fine of £500. A new order of preference is prescribed for ordinary land ballots: (1) Landless applicants with dependent children; (2) landless applicants who within two years have twice failed in a ballot; (3) members of the Expeditionary Force; (4) bone fide New Zealanders who gave military service beyond New- Zealand in connection with the war. It is provided generally that in the case of all other applicants those who are landless shall have preference. Provision is made for the payment of thirds for 15 years from the daie of license in respect to land disposed of after the passing of this Act on licenses issued pursuant to regulations under the Land Act 1908 for occupation of pastoral lands within the Hauraki mining district, Westland mining district, and Karamea mining district. The area which may be held under occupation in a mining district is increased from 100 to 200 acres. Clause 29 states that the owner of a renewable lease of any land set apart by section two of the Hauraki Plains Act 1908, who has complied with all the conditions of his lease, may at any time during the currency of the lease acquire the fee simple as provided by the Land Laws Amendment Act 1912," with such modifications as may be necessary, save that for purposes of this section the expression, "The original capital value" shall be deemed to be the amount upon which the rent at the rate of 4 per cont per annum was computed for the existing term of the lease.