LAND FOR HOMES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 106, 6 May 1924, Page 6

LAND FOR HOMES

SUBDIVISION IN AUCKLAND

HAMPEBED:" BY". REGULATIONS. '"

(Br IBL^GRAPH.—SPECIAL TO IHB POST.)

. AUCKLAND, This Day Over £500,000 worth.of land at first.; hand valuation is under subdivision, in Greater .Auckland at present for residential settlement. In addition, many more estates are marked for early partition into suburban home allotments. There stili is a fairly good demand for sections, though ' : advances ' for buildings are. comparatively; more difficult to negotiate in the, money market. . Estate subdivision as* a. form of Auckland enterprise is remarkable for its extent. It is described by surveyors and land agents ;as being even more remarkaUe, however, for the manner in which it is hedged about with departmental regulations, requisitions, and restrictions, v « "Each subdivision lias to pass through a maze of red tape," declares an Auckland land surveyor, whose 30 years' experience has not made him an admirer of t?.e ways of State Departments. "Every licensed surveyor and every solicitor in Auckland will bear witness to the waste of time and financial loss suffered daily by those who have any dealings in land' because of departmental delay over finicky requirements and unnecessary restrictions. No surveyor Scares to quote - to a- client th cost of subdivision^ for he does not know when.the plans may be approved. It may take months; "it" has• taken years. The whole process is cumbersome and requires drastic revision. Plans showing a proposed subdivision have to be submitted first to the1 local body concerned for approval as regards frontages, areas, roading, and so on; the subdiviison has to be called a 'toivn.' and the plan is then sent to Wellington for approval by the. Surveyor-Gen-eral and Minister of Lands. This process occupies; from' one' to two months at. least, if every detail conforms to the multitude of requirements. Most likely, however, the plans are returned to the surveyor with a catalogue of.requisitions, many of which are futile, hot always uniform; nearly always of, a trivial and irritating nature. The.- officials appear to be bondrslaves to the regulations, and split straws in the matter of interpretation. It often seems that the requisitions -"merely represent making of work jor numerous departmental, officers and clerks.! ■ : "Every surveyor naturally strives for accuracy; it would hot pay him to lie careless or negligent. Then there is an Assurance Fund, to which : every Land Transfer applicant contributes in proportion to the value of the land to be brought under the Act; This fund, which stands at £55,000, is supposed to compensate people against loss through inaccurate surveys. No one1 can recall a single successful claim made on it b».cause. of defective, recent suryeva."