NEW LAND ACT

Otago Witness, Issue 3475, 19 October 1920, Page 7

NEW LAND ACT

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT LANDS,

RIGHT TO ACQUIRE FREEHOLD

(From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, October 15

The Land Laws Amendment Act, introduced to-night, is a bulky measure, comprising 31 clauses and containing a wide range of new provisions. Where Crown lands ars sold on deferred payments thepurchaser is to deposit 5 per cent, of the price, and will thereupon receive a license to occupy. The balance is to be paid off in 19 years, with interest at 5 per cent., and with the right to pay off the balance at any time A new order of preference for ballots under tho Land Act is fixed. The following are to have preference equally over all other applicants:—(a) Landless applicants who have children dependent upon them; (b) landless applicants who have been unsuccessful at ballots under the Act, or tho Land for Settlement Act; (c) applicants who have served abroad with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force; (d) applicants who were bona fide residents of New Zealand immediately prior to the war and served with some force other than the New Zealand Expediticnary Force. In case of other applicants, those who are landless shall have preference over those who are not landless. The provision of the Land Act requiring that one-third of the periodical payments on land being purchased, or of the rent of lease of perpetuity lands, is to be earmarked for the construction of roads and bridges, is extended to cover pastoral lands held under lease. In the Hauraki, Westland, and Karamea mining districts endowment lands are dealt with by the stipulation that "no land shall hereafter become national endowment land by reason of the operation of section 258 of "The Land Act, 1908." It is also stated that the Governor-General may from time to time, by proclamation approved in the Executive Council, declare that —(a) any unoccupied national endowment land not exceeding m the aggregate 10,000 acres, or (b) any national endowment land disposed of .inder "The Discharged Settlement Act, 3915," or (c) any national endowment land dispoaed of under "The Land Act, 1908." and held under lease or license by any person who is competent to acquire land under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act, shall, as from a date to be specified in the proclamation, cease to be national endowment land. After the proclamation has taken effect the land shall, if unoccupied be set apart under the' Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act or under the homestead section of the Land Act of last session. If such land is held under the Discharged Soldiers' Settlement Act or under renewable lease by a person entitled to the benefit of that Act, the right to acquire the freehold is conferred. If such land is held under the same conditions by any tenure other than the renewable lease, _ the same right to acquire the freehold as if the land were originally Crown is conferred. All revenue obtained by the operations of these provisions is to be paid into the national endowment account for investment.