WELLINGTON LAND BOARD

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 7864, 15 May 1891, Page 5

WELLINGTON LAND BOARD

STRICTURES BY THE M-NISTfc?

FOR LANDS.

(PBSBS ASSOCIATION _____ÜBA-t.|

WEUiXNOTON, May lfc

| At tha Land Board this afte-mooa a discussion took place relative to the letter received by the Board from the Minister for Lands regarding the recent dummyism cms, ia which he referred to the "new ben? _eal"oftheßo«rd. The following reeolntion ir .*ed by Mr D. H. McArthur M.H.R., was carried—"That this Board receives with regret the letter of the Minister of Lands in which the Wellington Land Board is charged with neg.se« of its duty in detecting evasions of the Land I Act, and its action in asking for more rangers is termed "new-born _«__** The < Board resolves that the Ckimmiseioncnr b. reqnested to draw up and forward to the Minister for Lands, and also to the Press, a precis of the action taken by the Board in the matter of detecting and pnnishing 1 evasions of the Land Act. Members of th« Board are confident that the record of their -proceedings, commencing in 1889, will showthat the Minister's strictures are not borne out by the facts of the case, and that so far from the Board's zeal being new-born, it has been foremost among tbe Land Boards of the colony in striving to prevent and detect breaches of the Land Act, and has only been prevented from carrying ont its wishes to their fullest extent by the insufficient staff of surveyors and limited powers given to the Board by the present Land Act." A further letter was read from the Minister, in which he said there evidently had been great negligence or indi-fiarenco on the part of the Board as to the inaiaiar in which settlement conditions had been carried ont. The Board considered that Mr McArthur's resolution sufficiently answered both letters. Before separating the members of the Board expressed regret that the rCommi-sioner, Mr J. W. Marchant, had been transferred to the O-nterbury district.