LAND AGGREGATION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 266, 31 March 1911, Page 5

LAND AGGREGATION

COMMISSIONER SPEAKS STRONGLY. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Yesterday. The Commissioner of Crown Lands, Wellington, at the meeting of the Land Board to-day, spoke strongly against tlie aggregation of large areas of Crown lands by families. At'a previous meetinn- of' the board an application was made by E. C. Allen, holder of two sections iii the Ngamatca Survey District, to transfer the same to F. Robinson. This was refused on account of the family aggregation of areas, and Robinson, sen., a successful bush settler, now retired, of over thirty years' standing, attended to-day and' asked the board to reconsider its decision. He was willing and ready, it was stated on his behalf, to guarantee his son's overdraft at I lie bank, and otherwise to assist him if he proved a good farmer. The board was asked not to put obstacles in the way of such a desirable settler acquiring land which would be worked by the holder. The Commissioner pointed out that Robinson, sen., held 2000 acres of native land, his eldest son 1174 acres, and his wife 1041 acre=. It did not'seem to he carrying out the spirit, of the Land Act to grant another member of the family a considerable area. It -avoured of land aggregation, and laud was becoming scarcer every day. If. as was threatened, Robinson paid 111! per cent, of the land's capital value, and so removed the matter outside the jurisdiction of the board, that was a matter for the law itself: the board could not help that. The application will he considered in committee. Wellington. Last Night. In a Land Board case, where application was made for the transfer of leases in the Robinson family, after tlie Board had considered the matter in committee. I the application wa-, granted.