EDUCATION LEASES

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2271, 3 October 1914, Page 8

EDUCATION LEASES

PROPOSED TRANSFER OF ENDOW MENTS.

The Lands Committee of the House of Representatives reported yesterday on the petition of W. C. Roberts and five others respecting the Auckland University Council's leases at Whakatane. The tenants asked for a better tenure, The committee reported that as the question involved was a policy matter, it had no recommendation to make as to the particular petition; but it made a general recommendation that the Government should consider the advisability of improving the tenure of tenants on all education leases. The object was to secure to the tenants the value of their improvements. Mr. W. D. S. Mac Donald (Bav of Plenty) expressed a hope that the Prime Minister would have the question investigated. The Prime Minister (the Right Hon. W. F. Massey) said that he had a good deal of sympathy with the petitioners. He had met several of them during the recess, and had seen the land. It was poor, broken, third-class land, and he believed that the tenants would have very serious difficulty in making a living from it. This was not the only place where the holders would have serious difficulty in making a living out of the land, and he had had communications from all over New Zealand from men similarly placed. His proposal was that in such cases the proper thing was for the Crown to pay the educational bodies for the land and let them invest the money in some other suitable endowment, and let the holdings become ordinary Crown lands. Mr. G. J. Anderson (Mataura) said that unless something was done to im prove this kind of land the full value could not be got out of it. Regarding those very poor quality lands, with a lease of twenty-one years, people could not be expected to improve them if they were not to be recompensed for doing so. If these tenures would not give good results, it was the duty of the Government to find some better lease. The only tenure of use to the University would be the freehold. Mr.H. G. Ell (Christchurch South) said that it would be a good thing to give the people some direct representation on land boards. He disagreed with the view that the freehold of these reserves should be handed over to tenants.