SOLDIER SELLERS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 September 1930, Page 8

SOLDIER SELLERS

REPORT OF REVALUATION BOARD. WELLINGTON, September 17. The chairman of the'Dominion Revaluation Board in his report to Parliament to-day on discharged soldiers settlement says: “The* number of cases reviewed during the year..- was 158. -Then general effect of the determinations issued has been’ that the men affected thereby have experienced less difficulty, in meeting their obligations to the Crown. Fresh heart had been taken by those whose difficulties had begun to create in. them a spirit of despair, and there has been a general steadiness evidenced on the part of thoseiiassisted and a . gradual progress reflected by a reduction in arrears in spite of the low prices prevailng for farm produce last season. The reductions in charges made this year are particularly importmt as in the face of the last season’s low prices any endeavour to make overpriced land pay would be surely doomed to failure.

“During the major operations of the Board in the years 1924 and 1925, certain postponements were made for a period; of seven years from June JOth, 1923, and some of these fall due on July Ist. In a' number of cases it is expected that the postponed charges will bq met, but in others it is anticipated that the question of repostponement will have to be considered. In certain cases reductions ot charges have been made where the settler has gone out and it has been possible to dispose of the-property-to a new tenant. The alternative would have been a forced sale greater loss to the Crown, and great risk of the property deteriorating though not being occupied. “The continued operation of the Dominion Revaluation Board is beneficial, permitting as it does of assistance being given to the settler who is doing his best to meet his obligations, hut who is burdened with somewhat excessive land charges. In certain instances the necessity to reduce charges has been obviated by the allotment of additional areas to the settlers concerned where the trouble has been chiefly the smallness of the holding. Such increase in areas has permitted greater production and enabled the tenants to work their properties successfully without any reduction in charges.”