M.O.W. Buys Properties For Other Departments

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31276, 24 January 1967, Page 17

M.O.W. Buys Properties For Other Departments

Only five of the 1917 transactions in land and buildings, including houses, by the Ministry of Works in the last financial year were referred to the Land Valuation Court for a formal hearing on compensation. The rest were settled by agreement between the owners and the land purchase branch of the department

In all but 16 cases the department was acting for other departments or for agencies in which the Government has a direct financial interest. The transactions for the Ministry of Works itself related mainly to sites for extending its nation-wide radio communications network, and for plant depots and other buildings. The Ministry is responsible for negotiating for all land or other property required for any purpose involving Government expenditure and it also acts for the National Roads Board, for which it provides administrative and engineering services. These negotiations often involve complicated problems of law and valuation. Land purchase officers—there are 47 throughout New Zealand—assist property owners in arranging a fair and reasonable price, or compensation on a just basis, within the limits imposed by well-established law. Land values and compensation are assessed in relation to the price of land on the open market. The land purchase section Is organised to handle all types of transactions anywhere; its officers are selected for their individual and personal qualities, and are trained to deal with the variety of situations that arise

when public requirements affect home-owners, farmers, business firms, land developers, investors and speculators. These officers frequently work irregular hours, meeting the owners of property—houses in particular—in the evenings or at weekends.

The range of transactions includes sites for schools and hospitals, which are financed by the State, and land for catchment boards in cases where substantial Government subsidies are being given. An exception is the Lands and Survey Department, which buys large areas of rural land for development, farm settlement and public reserves.

About a third of the 1917 transactions last year were for the National Roads Board’s highway construction programme. Some 300 were for the Education Department, education boards and the universities, mainly sites for buildings or extensions. Experience here has varied from the purchase some years ago of farms as the site of the new university of Waikato, to the buying of residential properties in Wellington, Dunedin and Auckland for university extensions. The remaining transactions were well spread over many departments. Examples were the Health Department (for hospital boards), Maori Affairs (land for housing), Electricity Department (from small sites for sub-stations to large areas for power projects), Justice Department (prison and courthouse sites), Civil Aviation Department: (aerodromes), Police Depart-i ment (headquarters and stations) and the Post Office! Department (sites for its various services). Where transactions are | almost wholly in housing, sur-j rounding circumstances can greatly differ. The houses' bought at Rongotai many years ago for Wellington airport extensions were nearly all owner-occupied and many owners were able to settle elsewhere on the proceeds of compensation. Some were assisted with sites and the planning of new homes. But where a high proportion of the houses situated on needed land - are tenant-occupied, difficult problems can arise.