C.—l.

RECEIPTS. The receipts for the year from all sources totalled £1,700,454. The receipts for the last five years have been as follows,: Year ending 31st March, 1937 £1,402,596; 1938, £1,577,230 ; 1939, £1,429,501 ; 1940, £1,200,013 ; 1941, £1,700,454. POSTPONEMENTS, REMISSIONS, AND ARREARS OF RENT. Rents the payment of which remained postponed at the 31st March amounted to £29,701. Arrears of rent at the 31st March (including arrears in respect of the current half-yearly charge) totalled £378,107, while remissions for the year totalled £25,013. EDUCATIONAL ENDOWMENTS. An area of approximately 801,671 acres of education endowments under the administration of the various Land Boards is leased to some 4,191 tenants, who pay a total annual rental of £116,104. LAND FOR SETTLEMENTS. The statement usually published giving a summary of estates acquired in previous years under the provisions of the Land for Settlements Act has been omitted from the report owing to the necessity of conserving paper-supplies. The present position of the various settlements is, however, generally similar to that shown in Appendix 11 of the report for the year ended 31st March, 1939. The report of the Land Purchase Controller on land-purchase operations for the past year is published in parliamentary paper C.-5. PROTECTION OF HIGH AND STEEP COUNTRY AND BUSH-PRESERVATION GENERALLY. The Department, in co-operation with the State Forest Service, has continued to give attention to the necessity of bush-preservation and the protection of high and steep country generally. As a result, over 300,000 acres of Crown land was handed over to the State Forest Service for Proclamation as permanent State forest, while approval was also given to the permanent reservation of over 335,000 acres of provisional State forest reserves. Dealings under these headings during the past five years have been as follows : —

SMALL FARMS BOARD: LAND DEVELOPMENT. The year was one of marked activity for the Small Farms Board, which not only pushed ahead with the development of its existing blocks but also extended the area under its control by approximately 19,100 acres. At the 31st March the private land purchased and Crown land set apart for development totalled 160,610 acres. The bulk of the areas arc in the Auckland and Taranaki Land Districts. The favourable spring and summer resulted in a flush of feed and a considerable increase in dairy returns, but, at the same time, it produced a problem in the vigorous growth of ragwort and fern. In normal times this could have been handled quickly and easily by the purchase of heavy wethers, but the Board could not- ignore the fact that the market for this class of stock when fat had practically disappeared with the shrinkage in shipments ovorcoas. „ A great impetus to production was given by the introduction of the bonus or profit-sharing scheme on the Board's dairy-farms. The milkers were paid their ordinary rates of wages, and, in addition, received a percentage of the returns over a fixed minimum, including the returns from pigs. A further payment was made for any calves reared. It will be remembered that when the Government took over the assets of the Waikato Land Settlement Society in 1938, one of the conditions agreed upon was that the employees of the Society who held promises of titles would receive their sections as soon as they were fully developed and equipped. Ten settlers had been established by the Society, and a farther seventeen were allotted their sections as from the Ist October, 1940. The Small Farms Act, 1932-33, which constituted the Small Farms Board, provided that every lease granted to a tenant established by the Board was to be for a term of ten years, and was to confer on the lessee the right (to be exercised during the currency of the lease) to acquire the fee-simple of the 1 and comprised in the lease at any time after the expiration of four years from the commencement

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Crown Land pro- Provisional State claimed as Perman- Forest Reserves made ent State Forest. Permanent Ones. Acres. Acres. Year ended 31st March, 1937 .. .. 54,437 95,009 Year ended 31st March, 1938 .. .. 158,592 31,518 Year ended 31st March, 1939 .. .. 249,757 151,413 Year ended 31st March, 1940 .. .. 90,680 163,225 Year ended 31st March, 1941 .. .. 303,128 335,555 Totals for five years .. .. 856,594 776,720