THE SOUTHLAND LEASES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 250, 12 March 1913, Page 5

THE SOUTHLAND LEASES.

STATEMENT BY MR. BELL. By Telegraph.—Per Press Association, I 'Wellington. Tuesday. ■' Alluding to the Southland coal lease? case and to the assertion made in vari* oiis journals that a new fee simple haSapparently teen created, the Hon. H. D. Bell made the following state-* ; ment to a Post reporter: "In England and everywhere where English law pre- ;' vails the title in fee simple to the soil ; can be, and is frequently, separated j from the title to minerals, and when ' so separated there are two inheritances. That is always the. case where railway companies acquire the fee simple of land on which their * railway runs. The . owner remains possessed of the minerals. . Moreover the freehold of land can be ; held in tiers. The freehold of a flat can be granted above anotber flat. The . idea that either Justice Sir Joshua Williams or the Massey Government have invented a new and formerly unknown tenure is erroneous. Mr. Massey was aware, I think, of the law on the point, and as a layman he perhaps failed to comprehend the difficulties which want of knowledge on the subject has appar-, ently cause' 4 to editors and other lay-" men. '■ ' \