COMMISSIONER OF LANDS

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 142, 19 June 1922, Page 8

COMMISSIONER OF LANDS

ME. G. H. M. M'CLURE RETIRES,

Mr. G. H. M. M'Clure to-day sent ( in his resignation of the post of Com-1 missioner of Crown Lands, Wellington, Rising from the rank of surveyor in the Lands Department to his present position, Mr. M'Clure, during the 13 years he has held his present position, has had a great deal to do with land settlement in tho Wellington district. His first commissionership was in Westland, where he gained a first-hand knowledge of the timber and mining industries, and for his work there he was promoted to the position of Commissioner of Crown Lands, Southland. Filially, he was appointed to the post which he is now resigning. As a member of the land purchase boards of various districts with which he has been associated, Mr. M'Clure has done valuable work. While in Westland, he was a member of the- Representation Commission, and in the South he was commissioner under the Taieri Land Drainage Act. He has been a member of a number of Royal Commissions.

The activities of the Lands Department have grown tremendously since the war, and in the repatriation of soldiers by settlement on the land Mr. M'Clure has played his part. He has acted as Commissioner in connection with the purchase of 115 estates containing 84,498 acres at a cost of £1,667,811, and in addition controlled the advance of £2,829,126 for the purchase of farms and houses under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, 1917, and with a further sum of £622,699 advanced on current account to purchase stock,- etc., has been directly concerned in the expenditure of £5,159,636.' Mr. M'Clure has ever been a courteous officer, and the country l|y his retirement will lose a valuable servant.