ABANDONED SECTIONS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 November 1927, Page 12

ABANDONED SECTIONS

DEVELOPMENT AT PIRONGIA LAND TO BE SOLI) UY CROWN. PROCEEDS IN TRUST FOR OWNERS Hamilton, Nov. 14. The difficulties relating to the occupation and use of several hundred one-acre sections at Pirongia, owned by absentees, are expected to be overcome shortly, advice having been received from the Minister of Lands that 200 acres in the Pirongia East and Pirongia West township Will be offered for sale early in the new year. The experience at Pirongia demonstrates how in certain circumstances gifts may become a source of embarrassment. Pirongia was a military settlement known as Alexandra when the Maori War was in progress, and at the close of hostilities the militia and constabulary were disbanded. Each private was given an acre or town land in Pirongia and 50 acres of country laud, and higher ranks were given larger grants of laud in proportion.

DISAPPEARANCE OK HOLDERS. Title to the allotments was given on the payment of a Crown grant fee of £l, on receipt of which registration was effected. Very few of tho disbanded soldiers retained their sections for long. ■Some sold their grants without '.othering about regular conveyance, and left for Australia, where the majority cf them had been recruited. Others abandoned their holdings without paying the registration fee and left for the mining townships. Practically all the men disappeared- and the sections were left tenantless, while no authority existed to transfer them to those settlers who desired to make use of them. The result was that most of the area allotted to the soldiers became overgrown with gorse and blackberries, roads became obliterated and survey pegs were lost. Some of the sections adjoining farms that were being worked were made use of and were kept clear of weeds, and for years ■ the occupiers have been endeavouring to obtain title to the sections. Other settlers who recognised the menace which the noxious weeds presented have also agitated for Government assistance to release the titles, and offer the sections for sale.

LOCAL BODY'S DIFFICULTIES. The Waipa County Council had authority to sell the sections for rates, but when the cost of legal proceedings was counted the scheme was found to be impracticable. Each section had to be identified, and as the identification marks had disappeared a re-survey was found to be necessary. It was estimated that the cost of carrying out the legal procedure would be from £lO to £2O an acre, far more than the sections were worth.

Five .years ago an empowering Bill was passed by Parliament giving the Commissioner of Crown Lands authority to take possession of the laud, sell it, and hand the proceeds to the Public Trustee to 'be held by him until the original owners claimed them. Surveyors were on the block for some time, but found themselves up against a barrier that would cost more than, the land was worth to surmount. Matters were allowed to remain as they were until a year ago, when the settlers petitioned tlit» Minister to take action. The Hon. A. D. McLeod, Minister of Lands, and the Hon. O. J. Hawken, Minister of Agriculture, visited pirongia early this year, and investigated the position. As an outcome of this visit the decision to sell about 200 acres lias been announced and much satisfaction is felt in consequence. What happened at Pirongia was also enacted at Hamilton, and particularly in Hamilton East, except that Pirongia retrogressed and Hamilton developed into an important town. Many sections at Hamilton East are owned by absentee ex-soldiers or their descendants, whose addresses are unknown and the present occupants are without title to them. --4 u 1905 the Borough Council sold many of the sections for- rates, and as the lands had been kept clear of weeds and were valuable as town sections, they were worth buying. •