LAND PURCHASE BOARD

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LIII, Issue 122, 24 May 1919, Page 3

LAND PURCHASE BOARD

REMARKS OF MINISTER,

“We have placed on the lend t Purchase Board duties that it was never comtemplated would' fa’,l to its lot” (said the Hon-. D. H. Guthrie, in addressing the rant ever.co of Prawn Land Commissioners 'recently. “Befo-e soldiers settlements became a necessity, it was considered'' mute satisfactory if the board successfully negotiated for three or four properties during the year. But now it was expected to inspect and purchase as many per week. This brings up a difficulty which at the moment T see no means of overcoming, and tlv’t is the fact thrt the chairman, of the hoard has to associate himself directly in the inspection of practically every proposed purchase in the Dominion. I fully expected that yon, recognising this disadvantage, would; make some suggestions for the consideration of conference in the direction of strengthening and popularising ou.r land -purclT.se hoards. You are all aware that right throughout New Zealand there is a demand for the emnloyment of more loo] opt ion and local Judgment in connection with our purchases than is .prsnble with the Land Purchase Board 7 as at present constituted, and I shall he glad to have an expression of opinion from on •h’s imnortant matter. T held very strong views in) connection with it myself, and consider that it is almost an impossibility for the Land Pnrch’so Board, as at present constituted, to deal systematic llv and ley-'p-titinuslv wr'h ali] the offers from North Cape to Bluff.”