Snubbing a Land Board.

Evening Star, Issue 8506, 4 May 1891, Page 2

Snubbing a Land Board.

Soma time ago a resolution was passed by the Wellington Land Board to call the attention of the Minister for Lands to the necessity for the appointment of additional rangers if the Board was to successfully cope with the evasions of the Lands Act. In acknowledging receipt of this resolution the Under-Secretary for Lands wrote:— " The Hon. John M'Kenzie desires that yon will express to the members of the Board his pleasure at the new-born zeal displayed by them in endeavoring to detect evasions of the Land Act, as from reports now before him he regrets to find this part of the duty of the Board has been sadly neglected in the past." The Under-Secretary added that no time will be lost in appointing another ranger for the Wellington district, and that it is the earnest hope of the Minister that the Beard will take some notice of that officer's reports when evasions of the law are brought to the notice of the Board. Mr W. A. Fitzherbert expressed an opinion that the Minister's strictures were entirely uncalled for. The Board had always done their duty when occasion required, but they had been greatly hampered through the ranger being unable to give proper attention to cases through pressure of other work. Mr Hogg, M.H.R., said it seemed to him very much like locking the stable after the horse had been stolen. The Board ought to have insisted upon having other rangers long ago. SpeakiDg of a visit which be had recently paid to the Forty-mile Bush settlements in company with the Minister of Lands, Mr Hogg said there seemed to be little doubt but that this valuable settlement land was going the same way as the laud on the East Coast, and falling rapidly into the hands of large proprietors, to the detriment of settlement. Land which ought to be used strictly for the settlement of families would, in a short time, be turned into grazing runs for sheep and cattle. The Board ought long ago to have had rangers on the look-out to counteract the machinations of dummies and land sharks. Mr M'Ardle was satisfied that the Board had not made a single transfer unless there had been a good exchange. Mr Hogg maintained that transfers ought not to be allowed at all, and he hoped that a list of all land traffickers would be published as a preventive of future acts of the kind. After some discussion, further consideration of the matter was deferred until the next ordinary meeting.