EXAMINATION FOR LAND AGENTS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 57, 29 November 1924, Page 6

EXAMINATION FOR LAND AGENTS

SUGGESTED GOVERNMENT RECOGNITION

Should land agents be required to pass au examination before being allowed to trade as agents? The affirmative view was expressed by Mr. J. B. Harcourt in proposing a toast to the Wellington Association at the annual smoke concert of the Land Agents and Auctioneers’ Association of Wellington last night. Mr. Harcourt considered that the issue of a license to a prospective land agent should carry with it the approval of the Land Agents’ Association. Such a step would tend to give a greater standing to the association and its representatives, and ai the same time would provide the public with greater assurance. Ho ob, served with a good deal of satisfaction that the Court had refused licenses to persons whom it had nbt considered fit and proper to do bush uess with th© public. It had been suggested that land agents should be required to pass an examination, and with this he fully agreed. At any rate the members of the existing associations set a very high standard of fair dealing and impartial treatment. Speaking later in the evening, the chairman (Mr. A. Gellatly) said he felt that land agents would not be satisfied until the question of the examination of land agents was taken up. As matters stood, the parent body had to make a start wtihout Government recognition. It remained for tlie association to bring the machinery into action, and then the Government could probably be persuaded to take the matter up. Of course it would not mean that the nresent meinners of tho association would be required to sit for an examination. The difficulty was that there was not at present an ap. prenticeship to be served before a man could set up as an agent. There was very often no,prelinnnary work nut in. and consequently there was a feeling that a man might not have learned h’s business. There was a responsibility to look after the interests of noth buyers and sellers. < land agents mam mrrnose wa< not to make .sales, but to build no goodwill, and this could only be done by fair dealing.