FREEHOLD LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1726, 18 April 1913, Page 4

FREEHOLD LANDS.

OPPOSITION CRITICS REFUTED. Rome of the anti-Reform ncw6papeni havo recently been making statementil about tho area of freehold land in tho Dominion held in large blocks. In theso columns on Wednesday a paragraph appeared in correction of an assertion by the Auckland "Star" that "considerably ■ over twenty million aores of good land aro hold in largo blocks by European owners, still undivided and unimproved." Another anti-Reform paper has now taken up the subject, but without in any "■ay upsetting .the fact that tile Auckland ' Star's" estimate of freehold lands held in large blocks was incorrect That there was in the Dominion on March 31, 1910, a total area of 19,575,281 acres of freehold rural and pastoral land, exclusive of lands held by local bodies, is a fact, and it is also a fact that of. this nre;v 13,952,729 •icres are held in blocks varying from iivo to five thousand acres, and only 2,622,552 acres in larger blocks. The article mentioned states that 73,001) persons are-.in. possession of -10,000,000 acres. An analysis of this statement bhow.s that of the forty million acres nearly four and a half millions .aro leased, from individuals or local bodies, and a, little over two millions from Natives., while seventeen and a half million acrci are hold"from tho Crown under different; tenures, mostly-in large blocks of very rough country, not capable of improve' ment, under pastoral licenses. This lea vet sixteen and a half million acres owned in freehold. It is stated in the articlo that of tho forty million acres referred to, twentyfour million acres are unimproved. In this connection it has to bo remembered that the twenty-four million acres include pastoral leases, leaseholds situated at a nigh elevation above sea level, Sative lauds, and waste lands.