LAND WITHOUT OWNERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 November 1928, Page 10

LAND WITHOUT OWNERS

REMARKABLE INSTANCES.

A Liverpool magistrate recently expressed his astonishment that ownerless land could be found in that city. A wall was in a dangerous condition, and when the local authority served a notice on each of the persons who were possibly liable, they all repudiated ownership. In Deptford the authorities have been searching—xxnsuccessfully—for the owner of a site the Council wishes to buy. All ovex- England there is land that nobody owns. A good deal of it consists of strips running parallel to the highway in rural districts, and is held by squatters. Sometimes a man sees a. piece of land which seems to belong to nobody, and proceeds to enclose it by raising round it a bank of earth, on which lie plants elder bushes. In two years these form a fence, which he completes by cutting an opening and .erecting a gate. Finally, a cottage is built in the enclosure.

If the' squatter is left alone, he ultimately becomes the owneriof the land by right of possession. One .plot annexed in this way is oval-shaped, and almost in the middle of a valuable estate in Wiltshire. A former owner of the estate wished to obtain the plot, and asked the man who held it to move to a more out-of-the-way part.

The occupier refused, stating that he had acquired a title by undisturbed possession without having paid rent ox- dues of any kind. Maps and documents were consulted; but nothing relating to the particulai’ plot could be found. The squatter, therefore, could not be disturbed. There is much ownerless land in towns as well as in rural districts. During tramvray extensions in South London it was impossible to find the owners of three plots required for road widening. In a Cheshire town the trustees of a chapel, wishing to extend their building tried to discovex- the ownex- of some vacant land adjoining their site. They failed, and, as they did not care to run the risk of building on land where they would be nothing but squatters, the proposed improvement was not carried out. Hearing 'of their difficulty, a market gardener took possession of the land, and evex- since he has cultivated it without paying rent. There was a similax- happening in Lancashire. Wayleaves being required for telegraph poles on vacant land in the heart of a certain town, inquiries concerning the ownership were instituted. There was a negative result, and shortly afterwards somebody turned the plot into an open-aix- market, which it still remains.

Some years ago there was an equally strange discovery at Bermondsey. As a dock needed clearing out, the question of ownership arose, whereupon overybod.v concerned hastened to disclaim rights in the property. The Port of London Authority would not include it in its estate, nor would the firms occupying warehouses in the dock admit they owned it. At one time there was an ownerless site near the Bank, and on it a man boldly erected a block of offices and waited for the owner to turn up. Until quite recently, at any rate, he had not done so, and the property has changed hands several times merely by the transfex- of a key.