SPECULATION IN CROWN LEASEHOLDS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 583, 11 August 1909, Page 8

SPECULATION IN CROWN LEASEHOLDS.

Sir, —A most interesting discussion on tho subject of sjpeculation iri Crown leaseholds was reported in your issue of Friday last as being initiated by tho Commissioner of Crown Lands at a meeting of the Canterbury Land Board. The commissioner and board evidently hold the opinion that it is very wrong, if not actually a crime, for any tonairt to make a profit out of the transfer of a Ci'owli lease, and in consequence of this opinion wo are told that fivo applications for transfers were held over until tho next meeting of. the board, probably a month, whilst these gentlemen instituted searching inquiries. No consideration was shown to the tenants, who were entitled to the transfer provided t'hey had fulfilled the conditions of their leases. _ The commissioner stated that a tenant was in no wise entitled-to. the goodwill of his lease. This savours very much of confiscation. If the. goodwill does not belong to the tenant, then to whom does it belong? -The lot of a Crown tenant is quite hard enough without his having to_ contend against this injustice. No. man in his senses takes up laud, whether freehold; Crown or private lease, eycept with the object'of making a-profit out 't>f it, and as there is no clause m the gencial run of leases forbidding his doing so, the Canterbury Land Board is surely exceeding its duty in trying to prevent it. This is one of the many galling pinpricks that Crown tenants have to bear, and which make everyone who holds a lease long for the option of the freehold.—l am, etc., 1 ' \ ENCOURAGE SETTLEMENT.