The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1901. CROWN TENANTS REBATE OF RENT.

Feilding Star, Volume XXII, Issue 165, 15 January 1901, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette Published Daily. TUESDAY, JANUARY 15, 1901. CROWN TENANTS REBATE OF RENT.

During the session of 1900 a short but important measure affecting the land tenure system was forced on the Government. It was the Crown Tenants Rent Rebate Act. This Act provides that "the Commissioner of Crown Lands ancl the Receiver of Land Revenue may in their discretion grant to Crown tenants not being in arrear with any instalment of rent accruing due after the coming into operation of this Act under his lease or license, a rebate not exceeding one-tenth of each half yearly instalment of rent which, after the commencement of this Act, he pays within one month after the day appointed for the payment thereof. Such rebate may, when agreed to by the said Commissioner of Crown Lands and Receiver of Land Revenue, be deducted and retained by the Crown tenant from the full annual amount of the instalment when making the payment And in any case where the Commissioner of Crown Lands and the Receiver of Land Revenue do not see their way to grant a rebate of rent as aforesaid such decision shall be final and conclusive." The Land for Settlements Consolidation Act contains similar provisions to the above in order, as stated in the Act, to encourage the punctual payment of rent. It was believed, and not unreasonably, that although the clause granting the rebate was not mandatory but n.iy permissible, the ostensible intention of the legislature would be given effect to and that a deserving class of settlers would, to a slight extent, be relieved of taxation. However, some of the long-suffering Crown tenants had not long to wait for disillusionment. A case in point is that of the Aorangi estate. Ase • j lector in forwarding his half-yearly rental deducted ten per cent, in the belief that he was doing so in accordance with the Act. He has now received a notice stating that "in the case of the Aorangi settlement, the rebate has been fixed at five per cent " and asking that the difference in the j amount of rebate deducted be at once remitted. Another settler on the same block innocently paid his rentin full prior to the due date, but has not yet had any rebate. In passing the above mentioned enactments it was distinctly understood that Parliament contemplated granting a concession of ten per cent to those Crown tenants who paid their rent punctually. Indeed, Ministers and their followers have declared that that was so. But, like most of the Acts of late years, the principal power is conferred; on the Executive. There is nothing in either Act bearing on the subject to show how the government officers are to arrive at a conclusion as to whether or not— and if so, how much — a rebate of rent is to be granted on any particular block. The assumption, therefore, is that the Cabinet (which means the Premier) decides and instructs the Commisioner of Crown Lands and Receiver of Land Revenue. If it is right that one tenant should receive a rebate of 10 per cent pf his rent it is only reasonable that all should be treated alike, especially those on the high-priced Aorangi estate.