CLEARING LAND OF SURVEY CHARGES IS EASIER NOW

Te Ao Hou, July 1955, Page 49

CLEARING LAND OF SURVEY CHARGES IS EASIER NOW The payment of old survey charges is to be made easier for Maori land owners, the Department of Lands and Survey announced recently. When the original cost of survey, plus interest at 5% per annum for five years has been paid, all further interest will be remitted and the land cleared of the entire charge. Prior to 1932, it was the general practice for the Lands and Survey Department to engage surveyors on behalf of the owners to survey land which had been partitioned by the Maori Land Court. The Crown provided the money for these surveys and to enable it to recover the money spent the Court made orders' charging the lands with the amounts involved. The survey of partitions of Maori land is necessary before any negotiations can take place, and if these surveys had been left to be carried out in these days, the work would have been infinitely more costly. Survey liens still owing to the Crown bear interest at the rate of 5% per annum from the date of completion of the survey to the date of payment. Interest charges on unpaid liens have mounted up considerably over the years. In the past, this interest charge could only be reduced in certain special cases. The Chief Surveyor, however, is now authorised to clear the land of the whole charge, on payment of survey liens together with interest at 5% per annum for a period of five years only.