URBAN LAND SALES

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 111, 23 February 1950, Page 7

URBAN LAND SALES

LIFTING OF CONTROL TO-DAY 1 REGULATION EXPLAINED BY PRIME MINISTER (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Feb. 22. . All transactions relating to land other than farm land which are entered into on or after to-mor-row will be exempt from control under part three of the Servicemen’s Settlement and Land Sales Act, 1943. An amending regulation to this effect will be gazetted tomorrow. The regulation will not operate retrospectively.

” “The regulation which the Executive Council passed to-day provides that all contracts or agreements entered into on or after for the sale, or transfer of any estate or interest in any land other than farmland or for the leasing of any such, land or for the grant of an option over any such lands will be exempt from the Land Sales Act,” said the Prime Minister (Mr S. G. Holland) this evening.

For obvious reasons the regulation did not operate retrospectively, said the Prime Minister. Consequently transactions entered into before tomorrow would remain subject to the act and would, be dealt with by the Land Valuation Committee or Land Valuation Court as in the past, unless the parties mutually agree to a new contract cancelling or suspending the original one. The Government did not expect the new regulation would create any serious difficulty about contracts made before to-morrow as, unless the vendor had committed himself by contract to accept the Land Sales Court price, it would be open to him to withdraw from the transaction and make a new one. A vendor who had committed himself to accept the Land Sales Court price could, it seemed, be compelled to complete the transaction on that basis, hut that could not be avoided. The vendor in such a case had made a contract and it would not be proper for the Government to abrogate it by legislation or by regulation operating retrospectively. “By the end of the current financial year, March 31, 1950, the cost of the Land Sales Court, the Land Sales Committees, Crown representatives, accommodation, and clerical staff will have cost the country approximately £850,000,” said Mr Holland. “This figure represents only Government costs. Legal and valuation fees and other outlay incurred by vendors and purchasers must have reached a tremendous total.” The Court or committees had dealt with 218,488 applications in respect of urban land and 31,058 for rural land, a total of 249,546. It would be seen that as only rural transactions would now be subject to the act a great saving in administrative costs would be achieved. The administrative machinery was consequently being\overhauled.