Changing the Land System.

Patea Mail, 23 August 1882, Page 3

Changing the Land System.

LONG LEASES AND PURCHASE. The following amendments to Mr Rolleston’s Land Bill have been recommended by the Waste Lands Committee, to whom this Bill was referred : The first leases are to be for BO years in place of 21, and to be renewable from time to time in periods of 21 years. In estimating the value of substantial improvements of a permanent character, arbitrators are to bo guided by the foliotving definition thereof: “ Reclamation from swamps, clearing of hush, of scrub, cultivation, planting with trees or live hedges, the laying out and cultivation of gardens, fencing, draining,, making roads, sinking wells or watertanks, constructing water races, or in any way improving the character or fertility of the soil, or the erection of any building.” The provisions for relief of deferred-payment settlers have, instead of the option of exchange for leases under the Act, been altered to what will bo a more acceptable form to the persons concerned, to wit, “ That those who have complied with the conditions of their purchase for at least three years will be enabled to arrange with the Commissioner of Crown Lands to capitalize thenunpaid payments at 5 per cent per annum, and in paying punctually five per cent on such capitalized value by way ot yearly rent and unlimitedly discharging the whole of such capitalized amount, they shall become the owners «f the freehold. w Later. The House resolved late night to go into committee on the proposal.