SPECULATIONS IN LEASEHOLDS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 171, 23 August 1909, Page 4

SPECULATIONS IN LEASEHOLDS

MR. BUDDO INTERVIEWED. In the course of .an interview at Christchurch on Thursday the Hon. D. Buddo, Acting-Minister for Lands, made reference to the question of speculation in leaseholds raised at the last meeting of the Canterbury Land Board. The Minister 'was asked if he was in favor of extending the time in which no transfer could be made. He said that the time at present was two years from the taking up of the lease, unless there were exceptional circumstances. He had trequently urged in Parliament the necessity for making transfers more difficult. Parliament had decided two years ago that the term of restriction should be two years, and it could not be altered unless the Land Act was amended. The transaction was always hedged in with a large number of exceptions, such as failing health, questions of finance, education of settlers' children, and so on, and the Land Boards had frequently—nearly ahvays, in fact —shown themselves to be very sympathetic. In those exceptional cases the approval of the Minister had to be obtained. As to the acquisition of more land for settlement, 'Mr. Buddo said that in every province in New. Zealand substantial areas had been offered. Three or four estates with very good land were under consideration in Canterbury, and some of it would be available (for small area settlement. In other cases, also, the land was within a few minutes of large towns, and a considerable proportion would be suitable for what was known as closer settlement. Pastoral country in large areas had been offered, but no recommendation had yet been made by the Land Purchase Board.