THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1907. LAND AGENTS BILL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8481, 9 July 1907, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, JULY 9, 1907. LAND AGENTS BILL.

The Land Agents Bill, introduced to the House by Mr G. Witty, M.H.R., has passed its first reading. What necessity there is for a Bill of the kind we do not know, and we shall be interested to learn Mr Witty's arguments in its favour. No doubt if the Bill becomes law it will be an additional source of taxation, and, consequently, the proposed measure may possess some value from an administrative point of view. There is possibly nothing objectionable about the Bill, but, after carefully perusing it, we think it must be considered as coming within the description "faddy." In the Bill it is provided that land agents shall be licensed by the local authority. Every person who desires to obtain a license shall lodge with the clerk of the local authority a fidelity-bond for £SOO from some approved insurance company. The application must be dealt with at the next ensuing meeting of the local authority, and shall be granted unless two-thirds of those members present and voting declare that the applicant "is not a fit and proper person to receive a license." The annual license fee may be fixed by the local authority at any sum not exceeding £5. The license authorises the licensee to act as a land agent in any part of New Zealand. The licensee may appoint as his substitute any person, approved of by the local authority, upon payment of a fee of tan shillings. It is, also, proposed that "ah moneys received by a land agent in respect of any sale of land shall be applied as follows: —(a) In payment of the expenses, commission, and other charges of or incidental to the sale, (b) In payment of the balance (if any) to such person, or as he may direct; and until such payment such balance shall be paid into a bank to a separate trust account. Every land agent who commits a breach of this section is liable to a fine net exceeding fifty pounds."

Other clauses of the Bill provide that "within fourteen days after the completion of any sale of land by a land agent he shall render to the person on whose behalf the sale was made an account in writing of all moneys received by him in respect of such sale and of the application thereof, and shall within such period of fourteen days pay to such person the balance of such moneys." A sale of land is deemed to be complete when the agreement for the sale is signed by both parties, or by the purchaser and the agent on behalf of the vendor, and the deposit, if any, is paid. Every land agent is liable on indictment to two years' imprisonment with hard labour who—(a) Fraudulently converts to his own use the balance of any moneys received by him in respect of any sale of land or any part thereof, or fraudulently fails to pay such balance or any part thereof to the person entitled thereto; or (b) fraudulently renders an account of any such moneys knowing the same to be false in any material particular. Clause 12 as follows:—"Nothing in this Act shall affect any civil remedy that any person may have against a land j agent in respect of any matter." | THE EXCLUSION OF CHINESE. In the course of the debate upon the Address-in-Reply, last week, th" Premier stated, in connection with the Asiatic immigration question that "so far as could be ascertained no self-governing cobny absolutely prevented Chinese from entering." The fact of whether any self-governing colony does, or does not, absolutely exclude the Chinese is not, in our opinion, a sufficient reason in itself for the New Zealand Government to adopt similar legislation. As it is, however, the Premier was scarcely correct in inferring that no selfgoverning colony absolutely excludes the Chinese, because an important self-governing colony—Cape Colony —does absolutely exclude Chinese, and "in the Caps" the regulations under which what Chinese there are in the country reside, are of a very drastic character. For instance, if a Chinaman changes his place of abode he has to notify the proper authority. Several Chinese have recently been prosecuted and fined for failing to comply with this regulation. The Cape Government took a decided step when Chinese labourers were being importsd wholesale into the Rand, i and the reason for their doing so was really a desire "ta counter" the efforts of the Bond party, who were endeavouring to make political capital out of the action of the Rand magnates in regard to Chinese labour.