TRANSFERS OF CROWN LAND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3088, 9 January 1909, Page 6

TRANSFERS OF CROWN LAND.

A point in regard to transfers of Crown holdings which will be of some interest to selectors, cropped up at the meeting of the Wellington Land Board on Thursday. It was in connection with the transfer of a : section to which the Board granted j approval about six weeks ago on the j condition that if it were not com- { pleted within two months it would be liable to cancellation. During the interval the transferor expressed a wish to withdraw the transfer, and made application to transfer instead to a third person. This proposal was strongly objected to by the original transferee. The parties appeared before, the Board on Thursday, when counsel for the applicant wished to put in evidance to prove that every opportunity had been given for the incoming man to complete. Mr James Mackenzie, the. Commissioner, explained that the Board had nothing to do with the arrangements between the parties, their functions being confined to approving or otherwise the transfer. The only points about which the Board cared anything were whether the contract had been carried out in a bona fide manner and whether the incoming man was eligible. At the present time, and until the two months had expired, they could not for a moment entertain the idea of any transfer to a third person without the consent of both parties to the original transfer. The real point was that the Board kept quite clear of all these matters and declined to mix itself up in any arrangements between the parties concerned. Counsel for the transferor pressed the Commissioner for a pledge as to the action that the Board would ultimately take, but Mr Mackenzie declined to be drawn. Consideration of the matter was ultimately deferred until the next meeting.