RETURNED SOLDIERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17912, 17 April 1920, Page 6

RETURNED SOLDIERS.

UNSCRUPULOUS LAND AGENTS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) AUCKLAND, April 15. A warning to returned soldiers and others entitled to tho benefits of_ tho Returned Soldiers' Settlement Act against paying deposits on houso property in the city or Kiiburbs until tho proposed purchase has received tho sanction of tho Land Board was issued by tho Commissioner of the North Auckland Land Board to-day. Soldiers and others, ho said, should not under any circumstances pay a deposit on houso property, or farm -property for that matter, unless with the express stipulation that tho deposit was returnable in the event o? the board not recommending an advance. A ease had been brought undefr his notice by one of tho board's valuers of a property offered to a soldier's widow for £1175. She was induced to pay a deposit of £50. Tho same house had been sold a few months previously for £850. A valuation was mn,do by the department's valuers, and tho highest valuation was £900. Unfortunately tho widow was not entitled to a return of tho deposit. Tho board, said Mr Grevillo, was not going to malco any sweeping statements about land agents, because they were just like any other section of people—thero were good and straightforward agents, but there were some who wero unscrupulous. The board could not very well prevent soldiers from doing this kind of thing, all it could do was to warn them against entering into., an arrangement of that kind. In anoth.-V ease that occurred recently the board decided ojter very careful consideration that it was better for a soldier tii loso his deposit of £50 than to take up a proposition he had boon put into. Tho board had discussed this matter, and had deckled to rule that in future it would not aoeeprt any application whero thero had been a deposit paid, which was not returnable in tho event of the transaction not being approved by the board. In one instanco a property had been offered for £1060. Two valuations had been obtained, and tho mean of tho two worked out at £875. Such a proposition had not a hope of lioing passed by the board.