LAND SETTLEMENT.

Evening Post, Volume LXVIII, Issue 132, 1 December 1904, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT.

CONFERENCE OF LAND BOARDS. At the conference between the Minister for Lands and the Crown Lands Commissioners and members of Land Boards this morning, there were present the Surveyor-General (Mr. J. W. A- Marchant), Under-Secretary for Lands (Mr. AY. C. Kensington), and about forty-five members of Land Boards from all parts of the colony. The Minister, in opening the proceedings, congratulated the Boards upnn be ing so largely represented. The conference was one of the most important that had taken place in the history of the colony, since it was essential that the conditions under which our lanJs are settled should be the best possible end carried out with the least possible amount of friction, so that the settlers might be contented, happy, and prosperous. He courted the fullest discu»s ; on upon all matters brought before »he conference, and urged those present to speak freely and unreservedly, as it was the sole desire of the Government r,o obtain the opinions of members of Boards, who administer the Land Act, and, as :». result of their experience, are perfectly competent to say 'in what direction amendments are necessary or desirable. The matters discussed by the conference to-day were : (1) The question of whether Crown tenants labour under any restrictions inimical to their well-being and unnecessary in the interests of the State ; (2) are the residential conditions too exacting, and do they require relaxing? (3) the working of the present ballot system and dealing with applications for lands. Various alterations in the law were suggested, one of the most important Being in the direction of giving Land Boards greater discretionary powers than they at present possess.