CROWN CLAIMS ON STATE PROPERTIES: LIMITED NUMBER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22826, 22 December 1948, Page 6

CROWN CLAIMS ON STATE PROPERTIES: LIMITED NUMBER

Information, of interest to all possible vendors of properties respecting the exercise of the right of pre-emption by the Crown, where the properties under offer are certified as suitable for ex-ser-vicemen’s settlement, was given on Monday night by the Minister of Rehabilitation, Mr. C. F. Skinner, in a discussion with members of the Gisborne rehabilitation committee.

A question was raised by Mr. J. E. Benson as to what attitude the Minister took regarding the right of a purchaser who lost one property through the exercise of Section 51 of the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act. He asked whether the Crown would step in on any further purchase arranged by the same man, and received an assurance from Mr. Skinner that any purchaser who lost one property to the Crown for servicemen’s settlement would not be debarred on a second occasion, so long as the property he sought to acquire comprised an economic unit only.

Incidentally, the Minister mentioned that the number of occasions on which the powers conferred upon him by Section 51 of the Act were used was exceedingly small. Land sales committees throughout the Dominion had dealt with well over 25,000 properties since the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act came into operation, said Mr. Skinner, and in only a few over 270 cases had the department interposed between vendor and nominated purchaser. These figures indicated that while the Crown still required land for settlement of servicemen it was not operating the special powers under Section 51 in an arbitrary or unreasonable manner.

The position in Gisborne, in regard to Section 51, is that the special powers given to the Minister to step in and claim land offered for sale to a civilian buyer and divert it to servicemen’s settlement have not been exercised on a single occasion. This fact is due, in a large measure, to the recognition byall parties that certain classes of properties are likely to be required by the Crown, and that the nomination of civilian purchasers is likely to be unsuccessful. Potential vendors usually find ex-servicemen purchasers for such, properties, and thus avoid the possibility of difficulty through the operation of Section 51.