INFANT MAY OWN SECTION.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 281, 28 March 1929, Page 4

INFANT MAY OWN SECTION.

ADAMANT OPPOSITION. To Land Aggregation. A, clause in the Lands for Settlement Act states that no person who Holds, occupies or owns a section of land exceeding five acres shall acquire another section of land exceeding five acres. . As this clause has operated harshly in the Matamata district the chairman of the Matamata Town Board brought the matter to the notice, of the Minister, of Lands and asked that the section be amended. The speaker said that in his opinion the 1912 amendment to the Act was almost unnecessary.

Mr. Forbes’ reply revealed that he was adamant in his opposition to anything which would tend to allow aggregation of land. He said one way of overcoming the difficulty was to put a section in the name of a child, an infant one. year old being entitled to hold a section. The present limit of 640 acres of first-class land could not be abolished. Indeed he would be pleased to get such an estate at a reasonable price to cut up. As a Crown tenant be had taken the keenest interest in such questions and had always urged every precaution against land aggregation. In exceptional cases, like the one mentioned, he suggested that the matter be referred to the Minister for consideration. “ I do not feel that I could support anything which is likely to loosen the present provisions against aggregation,” concluded Mr. Forbes.

During the discussion Mr. Thompson remarked that there were cases in Matamata where transfers had been made under the section referred to.