MONEY NOT REQUIRED

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 94, 14 January 1921, Page 5

MONEY NOT REQUIRED

“HOMESTEAD” SETTLEMENT

THE SYSTEM EXPLAINED

An Auckland message published in The Dominion yesterday stated that the Minister of Lands (the Hon. D. H. Guthrie) had marked down a certain block in the Auckland province as a likely area for settlement under the homestead system. This system enables selector's to acquire a title to land not by payment, hut merely by occupation and the fulfilment of conditions relating to improvements. Section 11 of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1919, provides that the Gov-ernor-General may proclaim areas of Crown land to be set apart for settlement under the homestead system. No first-class land is to be disposed of under the section. A license to occupy may be issued for a term of ten years, such license being subject to renewal for a like term. No charge is to be made for occupation. The limit of holding is 409 acres in t'he case of second-class land, and 1009 acres in tho case of third-class land, but in special cases the Minister may approve of the issue of a license for the occupation of areas not exceeding 600 acres of second-class land, or 1500 acres of third-class land. The licensee must erect, a suitable dwelling within twelve months after the issue of the license. Residence is compulsory during the term of the license, but the land board may dispense with it for a period not exceeding four years if the licensee is, residing on any other land occupied under the section. The Minister is given power to make advances for the improvement of the land when the land board recommends that such advances be made. No license may be assigned or transferred. The licensee is exempt from general rates for a period of four years from the date of issue of the license. At any time after the expiration of seven years from the' commencement of his license, *nd before its expiration, a licensee who has complied with the conditions laid down is entitled without payment to a certificate of title to the land. He is not 1 , of course, relieved of the obligation to repay advances made to him. Regulations now in course of preparation will prescribe the improvements to bn effected by licensees, and the conditions on which advances may be made and secured. The regulations will probably appear very shortly, and homestead settlement will then be inaugurated. So far, no land has been set apart by proclamation under the section referred to in tho preceding paragraph.