DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND SURVEY: NATIONAL ENDOWMENTS (REPORT ON) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1921; TOGETHER WITH SCHEDULE SHOWING AGGREGATE AREA OF LAND EXCLUDED FROM THE ENDOWMENT.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1921 Session I-II, C-14

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Session 11. 1921. NEW ZEALAND.

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND SURVEY: NATIONAL ENDOWMENTS (REPORT ON) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1921; TOGETHER WITH SCHEDULE SHOWING AGGREGATE AREA OF LAND EXCLUDED FROM THE ENDOWMENT.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly pursuant to Section 11 of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1920.

Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington, 10th June, 1921. Sir — I have the honour to submit herewith report upon the national endowments, showing alsothe aggregate areas of land excluded therefrom and the aggregate area made freehold, &c., for the year ended 31st March, 1921. I have, &c, T. N. Brodrick, Under-Secretary for Lands. The Hon. D. H. Guthrie, Minister of Lands.

REPORT. The national endowment was established by the National Endowment Act, 1907, as a permanent endowment for the purposes of education and of old-age pensions. This enactment, which afterwards became Part VII of the Land Act, 1908, set apart an area of 7,000,000 acres in the various land districts of the Dominion as the nucleus of the endowment, and provided that until a total area of 9,000,000 acres would be reached all Crown lands then or thereafter held on renewable lease, or on small-grazing-run lease under the Land Act, 1892, or the Land Act, 1908, were to become part of the national endowment. On the 11th November, 1920, the date of the passing of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1920, it was enacted by section 11 thereof that no lands were thereafter to become part of the national endowment. The prescribed maximum area was reached during the year ended 31st March, 1920. Section 11 of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1920, further provides that the Governor-General may, by Proclamation approved in Executive Council, declare that the undermentioned lands shall cease tobe national endowment ; prescribes the manner in which unoccupied lands so excluded from the

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endowment shall be dealt with ; and gives to lessees 01 licensees of occupied lands so excluded the right of acquiring the fee-simple of their holdings : — (a) Any unoccupied national-endowment land not exceeding in the aggregate 20,000 acres ; or (6) Any national-endowment land disposed of under the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1915; or (c) Any national-endowment land disposed 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, 1915 ; or (d) Any national-endowment land held ;is a small grazing-mn under a. lease issued pursuant to the Land Act, 1892, oi issued prioi' to (he 10th December, 1918, under the Land Act, 1908. As subsection (15) of the above-quoted enactment provides thai a report giving particulars of the operations thereunder shall he laid before Parliament within thirty days after the commencement of next session, a. schedule is appended giving the particulars prescribed for the period from the 11th November, 1920. the date of the passing of the Act, to the 31st March, 1921. The lands excluded from the endowment during that period comprised two small grazing-runs in Hawke's Bay Land District having an aggregate area of 5,934 acres. Schedule. (a.) Aggregate area excluded from national endowment, 5,934 acres; capita] value, £5,565 15s. (b.) Aggregate of area so excluded of which fee-simple has been acquired on the Slsl March. 1921, nil. (r.) Aggregate of area so excluded and still held under lease on the 31st March, 1921, 5,934 acres ; annual rent, £139 2s. lOd. ('/.) Aggregate of area so excluded and not disposed of by way of sal lease, nil. (c.) Area, of laud purchased by Crown out of moneys in National Endowment Trust Account, nil. The total area comprised in the national endowment on the 31st, March, 1921, was approximately 9,070,694 acres. Of this an area of 7,082,633 acres was held on lease or license, subdivided into 4,464 holdings, and producing an annual rental of £136,452. The total revenue derived from this endowment during the past year was £144,520.

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