LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19620, 26 April 1927, Page 10

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

I WORK OF ADMINISTRATION. ! .MINISTER ANNOUNCES CHANGE. [BY TELEGRAPH.— OWN CORRESPONDENT.} WELLINGTON, Sunday. A change in connection with the administration of the Land for Settlements Department was announced yesterday by the Minister of Lands, Hon. A. I). McLeod, who stated that the department had now been amalgamated with the Lands and Survey Department. formerly the Land for Settlements Department was a separate department, with Mr. J. D. Ritchie as the permanent head. On the retirement of Mr. Ritchie x at the end of last month, the Land for Settlements Department was absorbed by the Lands and Survey Department, and Mr. J. B. Thompson, Under-Secretary for Lands, was appointed land purchase controller and chairman of the Dominion Land Purchase Board. Mr. R. A. Rodger has been appointed land purchase officer. Ihe Land for Settlements Department, which was constituted in 1908, was one of the minor departments of State, and its activities were closely allied with those of the DepEirtment of Lands and Survey, which had the responsibility of settling the land after purchases had been made by the land purchase controller, it was deemed advisable to take the opportunity of Mr. Ritchie'a retirement ' sma^er department in the