The Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING.) MONDAY, JULY 21, 1913. HETANA HAMLET.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 144150, 21 July 1913, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. (DAILY EVENING.) MONDAY, JULY 21, 1913. HETANA HAMLET.

Though very few of our readers probably have ever heard of the Hetana hamlet, it has lately come into notoriety because the Land Laws Amendment Act of last year has enabled the Crown tenants to acquire the freehold of their holdings if they choose. It is situated about half a mile from Now Lynn railway station, which is ten miles out of Auckland'. About ten years ago the Seddon Government purchased 451 acres of land and cut it up into 123 sections, mostly from one to five acres in extent, one only being a small farm of 40 acres with homestead, for the purpose of workmen’s homes. The land was offered on lease in perpetuity, the rents being calculated on a five per cent. t basis, and varying from 3s to 34s per acre. For several years the settlement was a failure, the workers not taking up the sections ; very readily, but at the end of March, 1912, there were 85 selectors and 81 residences in the settlement. The rapid growth of Auckland during the last few years has naturally added considerably to the value of land situated contiguous to. the railway within ten miles of QueeniStreet, so that there is a very markedij difference between the present values and those at which/'the land 4 was originally J offered. The Henants have now the right to acquire?the freehold at, a price aotuarially calculated. A ! new valuation is made by the Valuer-General# and ’ the value of the tenant’s fimprove-ments-idedncted, leaving the ‘ ‘pre-. sent capital value.” The amount, by which the present-capital:value, exceeds •being thus j ascertained,' amlactu-i arial computation is made'of 1 the' present value of such excess- if; payable at the expiration of'the., existing term of! the lease. * The amount ascertainedlby, such actuarial computation -is added to the original capital value, -and The result is tho.pricoiat whicli’the /tenant may acquire the freehold. The application of the provisions of last'year’s Act to the , Hetana hamlet was, seized upon by the; Opposition press .and some-of ..the Opposition members of. Parliament as a text for a violent attack upon the policy contained in the Act. Here, they said, was,the Government giving away for a few pounds-land which; was worth hundreds of pounds. The community was being robbed in’,order that the Government might] purchase the votes of the workers,; living in the Hetana hamlet! And. so on. In reply to these attacks the Prime Minister on Thursday, last tabled a schedule showing the selling prices of 24 of the holdings together with the original capital values and the Valuer-General’s, assessment of the present values.,, We need not quote Hhe schedule;, in full, two or three typical instances .will show how the values differ. A section whose original value was £25 is now valued at £145, and the tenant is allowed to secure it for £sl. Another valued originally at £125 and now at £4OO may-be acquired for £l9O. For a third the values are £75, £155 and £93 respectively. The total original value of the 24 sections was '£2585, the present value is £6165, and the price charged to the tenants is £3420. The critics may say that on Mr. Massey’s own figures he is making the 24 tenants a present of £2745, and that if the Government retained the land it would probably be worth a great deal more at the expiry of the renewable lease. But according to the Land Department’s Guide the sections in the Hetana hamlet were disposed of —some of them at any rate—on the leaso-in-perpetuity system, and these leases have therefore about 990 years to run at what is now a ridiculously low rental, as low indeed as three shillings per ]

acre in several cases. Now. before the Government is charged with robbing the State of thousands of pounds by turning these leases into cash the critics should consider which is the better bargain’for the State—to continue to receive, say, 15s a year for a five-acre section for 990 years or to sell the freehold to the tenant for half its present value. The State never made a worse bargain with Crown lands than when it granted leases in perpetuity. That was the time when the Government gave away its land, and the present Government is getting out of a bad bargain on very good terms indeed, if the tenants can bo persuaded to purchase their holdings. In the case of the Hetana hamlet they seem in no hurry to do so, for only eight have so far completed the purchase either by payment of the full amount or the first instalment under deferred payment. At the end of March, 1912, there were 85 tenants, so that only one in ten has so far found his sentimental regard for a freehold strong enough to cause him to take advantage of the Act.