6.—16.

4

EBPORT.

To His Excellency the Eight Honourable Arthur William de Brito Savile Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order ot Saint Michael and Saint George, Member of the Eoyal Victorian Order, Governor and Commander-in-Chief in and over His Majesty s Dominion of New Zealand and its Dependencies. May it please Your Excellency — We the Commissioners appointed under Your Excellency's Commission dated the 7th day of September, 1914, to inquire into the tenures under which land in the township and suburbs of Rotorua has been leased by the Crown and into the subdivisions of the said leases, and to ascertain whether the original tenants and their transferees and sublessees should be allowed to acquire the fee-simple of the land held under lease or sublease by them, and, if so under what conditions, the period for the return of which said Commission was the 30th day of September, 1914, and which was extended by enlargements dated the 28th day of September and the sth day of October, 1914, have the honour to inform Your Excellency that we have visited Eotorua and inspected the town and suburbs. Having carefully considered the evidence brought before us, we beg respectfully to report on the matters submitted to us as follows :— , , „ i • • ±- 1 On inquiring into the first clause of the deed of submission respecting leases issued in the town and suburbs of Rotorua, we found that leases have been issued as follows: Under the Thermal Springs District Act, 1881, 386 leases ; under the Land Act, 1892, 1 lease; under the Public Bodies and Domains Act, 1908 22 leases; under the Public Reserves and Domains Act, 1908, 20 leases : total' 429 leases. In addition to the above there are, we are told by the Grown Lands Department, hundreds of subleases, but in the time allowed we could not obtain the details. , 2 The ascertained approximate expenditure of public money between the Ist April, 1890, and the 31st March, 1914, on permanent works (exclusive of railways) within the town and suburbs of Rotorua was £181,224 3s. lid. Estimates regarding the proportion of the increase in the unimproved value of the land due to such expenditure ranged from 2* per cent, to 50 per cent, (that of the Chamber of Commerce being 5 per cent.); but, in our opinion, upon a consideration of the whole of the facts placed before us, we consider a fair assessment of such proportion would be per cent, in the town and 15 per cent, in the suburbs This sum should be added to the value of the property, otherwise arrived at, if the freehold is disposed of. 3 We are of opinion that it would be in the interests of the btate that any holder of leasehold Crown lands other than occupiers of the Education Reserve desiring to possess the freehold of his land should be afforded the opportunity to do so. From the evidence submitted to us we consider the town would progress to a greater extent if the occupiers of the land possessed it in feesimple Instances were related to us of persons desirous of acquiring property in the town who have declined to take an interest in a leasehold and have invested their money elsewhere. Freehold titles have been acquired for lands bounding the town i ortions of these lands will no doubt be subdivided and sold and occupied by persons who would otherwise have been town residents. Much of the leased land in the suburbs of Rotorua is at present unused and waste. There is reason to believe that a large part of this would be occupied if a freehold title could be obtained At the present time the land is of small value to the Crown, because the rents derived therefrom are not retained by the State, but are paid, under the Rotorua Town Act, to the Town Corporation for expenditure on the roads and streets and other requirements of the town. If the land is sold these rents will be capitalized and the sum realized paid to and retained by the Crown.