LAND SETTLEMENT

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXI, Issue 204, 30 July 1941, Page 6

LAND SETTLEMENT

PURCHASES BY CROWN. PLANS FOR EX-SOLDIERS. (Special.) WELLINGTON, July 29 Small farms development was pushed on last year, according to Lands Department’s annual report. Existing blocks were further developed and another 19,109 acres came under control. Private land purchased now totals 169,000 acres, mostly in the Taranaki and Auckland districts. The Government’s decision to pro* vide for the settlement of discharge soldiers in the present war under the Small Farms Act w-as given effect to in a 1940 amendment. This included a clause giving preference to applications from discharged soldiers and also gave the Small Farms Board power to acquire land compulsorily for soldier settlement. . , “This power will not be exercised unless it is found impossible to obtain sufficient suitable land by negotiation, the report adds. “The numbei or offers at present coming forward is entirely satisfactory. Twenty-one properties acquired during the year by the Dominion Land Purchase Board were handed over to the Small r arms Board for development and settlement.” , The general revenue from Grown lands amounted to £1,700,454 last year, almost £500,000 above the receipts in the previous year. New rural areas taken up for the first time were 42 of 3961 acres. Arrears of , rent total £378,107, and last year’s remissions were £25,000. .Although 103 estates, aggregating nearly 250.000 acres, were offered to the Government last year under the Land for Settlements Act, it is disclosed that only 31,000 acres were purchjiseel, the explanation being tnat tlie smallness of the operations w-as du© solely to unsuitably or excessive prices in respect of the majority of the properties offered.