LAND LAWS

Evening Star, Issue 18736, 11 September 1924, Page 10

LAND LAWS

FIGHTING AGGREGATION. [From Out. Parliamentary Reporter,] WELLINGTON, September 10. " Unless you can get down to compulsory residence, how are you going to deal with land aggregation?” asked the Hon. A. D. M'Leod, Minister of Lands, in the House to-night. He said he was going into the question of land aggregation fully before next session to see if the present position could be improved. He knew the difficulties the question presented, and he yielded to no man in the House in his wish to prevent aggregation. He agreed that it was still going on. If the House could decide what constituted aggregation they would go a long way towards a solution of the difficulty. Personally, he had extreme difficulty in saying what it was. FORFEITURE OF LEASES. Several members, when discussing the land laws, drew attention to the number of forfeiture of leases that has taken place. The Minister, however, assured the House that the latest figures (to March 31) shoived the very low percentage of 1.2 of the total number; and of these forfeitures quite a number were on the application of soldiers themselves, or an abandonment of a farm. Then the forfeitures also included cases where a change of tenure was desired, a process involving forfeiture of the lease. He quoted figures showing that the average number of forfeitures during the ' last twenty years or more of land settle- ■ ment in New Zealand was just about the • same as it is to-day.. i