LAND SALE TRANSACTIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25801, 23 March 1945, Page 6

LAND SALE TRANSACTIONS

Sir,—lt is with amusement and amazement 1 notice the authorities still crying out for increased production. Many aspects of this question have already been covered iniyour paper, but I wonder how many people realise what an impediment to production is the present working of the transfer of land under the Land Sales Act.' lam not adversely criticising the ideals of the Act which I consider are mosi worthy. The prospective buyer of a property wastes much of his own and a stock firm's time which could otherwise be devoted to useful production, far and above that normally spent in searching for and purchasing a farm..' Not only is valuable time wasted, but possibly 4 considerable sum' paid as deposit is losing interest and lawyer’s fees have to be paid, and in the case. of the Government taking over all is lost.

Surely it would be obvious that if a plage was offered to the Crown before being offered to the general public, apart from the personal .inconvenience caused, production would .nfcC sfiffer bl&ause the buyer would be able to get straight on to thcj’job instead of waitifig—perhaps doing no productive work at all. I have heard of cases of people waiting as, long as five months, and should one be turned down after such an interval, It is not unreasonable to suppose - that, his tion would be lost for- possibly 12 months. On inquiring whether there is any method of accelerating this procedure, it is rather tiresome to be told that nothing can be done, when to any rightthinking person the solution is obvious. Would it not be a fair thing to expect the Crown to compensate one for out-of-pocket expenses should it-take over?—l am,'.etc., Logic.

Dunedin, March 22,