AUCKLAND LAND BOARD,

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 73, 27 March 1914, Page 3

AUCKLAND LAND BOARD,

"A COMMON EXCUSE" IN CONNECTION WITH APPLICATIONS FOR TRANSFERS. (IT TELEGRAPH— fiI'ICIAL TO TH« POST.) AUCKLAND, This Day. "That is a common excuse," remaiked the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr. H. M. Skeet) at yesterday's meeting of the Land Board, to an applicant for a transfer who pleaded that he desired to sell his equity because of his wife's ill-health. The Commissioner asked whether, in this case, there was not an element of speculation. He pointed out that the terms submitted showed that the vendor was making a profit of about £1000 on an o.r.y. section of 116 acres in the Thames district. The latter quoted figures to show that, allowing for his expenditure on the property during the past two years, he would clear only a little more than £200. He knew that if he had waited until the spring he could have got £2 per acre more for the property. "Now," said the Commissioner, "you are talking too much. Perhaps you s have been soms time looking for the highest buyer." Mr. \ Skeet added that it was not the genuine transfers that affected the land system, but the goodwills, which were continually coming before the board. Eventually the applicant satisfied the board thafr his transfer was worthy of support. Later, a member of the board whistled when an application for a transfer showed that a sum of £3920 was being paid for 89 acres of land at Opouriao, Whakatane. This is equivalent to about £40 per acre.