TYRANNY OF LAND BOARDS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 9796, 16 July 1903, Page 2

TYRANNY OF LAND BOARDS.

WHY SETTLERS WANT THE FREEHOLD. (From our Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Some peculiar instances of the way m which the Land Boards do their workwere given by Air Lethbridge last night. Most of the settlers who had taken up hind on lease wanted to get the freehold, and the reason was that they were always being troubled by the Land Board and the ranger. For instance, he knew of a case where two brothers took up adjoining sections^ one fronting the main road, and the other a side road. The main road was formed and the side road was not made. They built a house on the section adjoining the made road, and because the other brother did not reside on his section, to which access was impossible, the Land Board forfeited liis holding. Another settler owned 150 acres of freehold, on which he 'lived with his wife and family, and had a lease with right of purchase of the adjoining land of 100 acres. That 100 acres he would have been entitled to purchase m another year, but because lie did not -reside on it, his home being on his other and adjoining holding, the Board forfeited the section and sold it to a settler who already held 500 acres.