LAND PURCHASE.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1833, 21 August 1913, Page 4

LAND PURCHASE.

BETTER METHODS SUGGESTED LEGISLATION IN PROSPECT. The present system cf acquiring land for settlement was tho subject ot question and reply in tho House of Kepxeseutativos yesterd.iv. Mr. 1-j. 11. Clark, member for Chalmers, asked whether the l'rimo Minister would this session introduce on amendment to the Land Act giving power to compulsorily take large areas of privateljMjwncd land for closer settlement, tho price to be arranged by arbitration? Mr. Mussey roplied that the Government already had power, under the Lund for Settlements Aut, 1907, to tako land compuisorily. Ulh-. Clark and several other members attacked the ]n-escnt constitution and methods of the Land Purchase Board. The member for Chalmers stated that in his district an estate had l been purchased at a pa'ice of .£l3 per acre in excess of the Government valuation. The lion. W. I'. Massey'suid that up to 1907, when the law was amended at tho instance of Mr. M'Nab, then Minister for Lands, the law had been working very satisfactorily indeed. He was opposed to the cliange made then. The position now was that the landowner practical]}* fixed his own valuation. Then if the Crowfi required to take the kind compailsorily a percentage had to be added to the price fixed by the landowner, and df there was any difference of opinion as to the value of tiho improvements, the value was arrived at in tllra same way as tho unimproved value was reached. He Was not at all sure that the law as it stood could not ba bettered. He had not changed his mind at all since tho alteration of tho Act in 1907. There .was an inquiry, held into land matters, and it came out at that inquiry that the degal expenses in compulr sorily taking the lnnd were costing . in neawy every, case thousands of pounds. A return had been ordered in this connection, and it would bo available, he hoped l , during tho current session. It would show that the legal expenses were out of all proportion.to the value of tire Land. Lawyers, valuers, all sorts and conditions of men were appointed at •hig'h. salaries for the time bsing, and -thousands of pounds for legal expenses were added to the value of the ground, and ' the unfortunate settlers were paying interest on them today.' "If wo go back to tho original system," said Mr. Massey, "and I say even now I prefer tho original system—then something will be done to prevent tho excessive cost of legal expenses. If we do go back, I am going to take good care that we do not pay so much for legal expenses "

Sir. M'Callum: The money was earned all right. . Mi-. Massey: I do not agree with that, and when the return'comes along I think you will agree with 1110 that the money was not earned. Members, he continued, were inclined to overlook the fact that subdivision was going on very rapidly indeed. In addition to the Land for Settlement Act, there was tho Land for Settlement Finance Act—a good little measure which was doing valuable work—and then 1 tho graduated land tax was going 011 all Ilia time. Then thoro was the fact that, sheep land was becoming so valuable, dairy purposes that it was being cut up' to provide dairy farms. He knew the Auckland provincial district thoroughly, and ho said from a thorough knowledge that there was hardly a largo estate left there. He could remember when the Waikato Valley was full of large estates, but now there were nono. In i'aranaki now there wero no large estates, anil the same course had been. in. operation in other districts. He believed that ill less than ten years there would, not lie a single large estato left in New Zealand. So far ns legislation was concerned for expediting the subdivision of land, he believed that, if not this session, then next Mission, they would have to discriminate between tho man who was holding unoccupied land and tlw man who was making good use of his land irrespective of its area. Ho did not believe that ill a country like this a man should be allowed to hold improvable land dn an unimproved condition, and that was the direction legislation would have to take. Mr: M'OaiUum: Wo will help you. Mr, Massey; I hopo you will. A.nd, ho added, legislation will have to make tho man who is holding unimproved land pay for the luxury of doing so.