OF INTEREST TO D.P. SELECTORS.

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 420, 23 December 1884, Page 6

OF INTEREST TO D.P. SELECTORS.

! — -• " — Two deferred payment selectors apy plied to purchase at the last meeting; <of the Southland Land Board. The Chief Commissioner *aid that a memo had been received from Wellington on this subject, which quite upsefcthe' Board's view of the law of purchase of deferred payment lands. It was th© opinion of the Minister that no selector" shculd be allowed to acquire the freehold till he had completed 6 year's occupation even if he had taken up the land under the Act, which fixed Ihe term at, three ! years. The applicants before the B6a!rd J could not therefore complete purchase for several years to come. . . Mr Lutnsden held that the Department's view was illegal and would lead to litigation. It was not common sense to rule that a man who had taken up land on the clear understanding that he could j purchase in three years, could not com- , | plete the transaction till the expiry of six ' years, because an Act had since been i passed to that effect. Mr Denniston said the j roposal wag iniquitous. The Goverrment might as Wfll make a provision that the price of the land should be raised after purchase. The Chief Uommissioner said the decision made the Act of 1884 retrospective. The Appeai Court in the recent case Higgins v. Otago Laud Board had ruled that it could not be made so. He su^jjosted that the applications before tho Board be held over till they had made a repvenentntion to the Minister on the 1 subject. — Agreed.