A.—l

28

The Governor is also authorized to grant to persons other than enemy subjects the right to make, use, exercise, and, sell any patented invention or design liable to avoidance or suspension as aforesaid. 1914, No. 49. The Public Works Amendment Act, 1914. —This Act authorizes the Minister of Public Works or any person, authorized by him in that behalf to apply for and hold, on behalf of the Crown, any water-race license, in the same manner as if any such license maybe acquired and held by a private person. 1914, No. 50. The West Coast Settlement Reserves Amendment Act, 1914.—This Act amends in various particulars the provisions of the West Coast Settlement Reserves Amendment Act, 1913. 1914, No. 51. The Land Laws Amendment Act, 1914.—This Act amends in various particulars the provisions of the law relating to the disposition and tenure of Crown lands in New Zealand. Its most important provisions' are the following : — Section 5 relates to the classification of lands for the purposes of the various existing provisions relating to the limitation of area. It relates only to lands that have not been, classified by the Land Board under the Land Act, 1908—that is to say, it relates principally to settlement land, Native land, and private European land. Where any such land is required to be classified as first, second, and third class (for example, for the purpose of determining the area that may be acquired in freehold under the provisions of earlier Acts relating to the purchase by tenants of the fee-simple), such land is to be classified as follows : — (a.) First class, of an unimproved value of £8 per acre or upwards (in lieu of £4 and upwards); (6.) Second class, of an unimproved value of between £4 and £8 (in lieu of between £2 and £4); (c.) Third class, of an unimproved value of less than £4 (in lieu of £2). The effect of the alteration will be to reduce land valued at between £4 and £8 an acre from first class to second class, and to reduce land valued at from £2 to £4 from second class to third class. The reduction in classification will result in an increase in the area that may be held. Section 14 modifies the provisions of section 13 of last year's amendment (relating to revaluation in cases where land has been overvalued). It has been found necessary to restrict the rights conferred by the earlier section, and under the amended provisions applications for revaluation can be made only after three years and before the expiration of six years from the commencement of occupation. Sections 17 and 18 relate to the right to acquire the fee-simple conferred by earlier legislation on lessees in perpetuity of ordinary Crown land and settlement land. The usual provisions as to the restriction of the area that could be acquired m fee-simple are not appropriately applied, in these cases, and lead only to needless complexity of the law. Sections 17 and 18 give to such lessees the right to acquire the whole area, comprised in their leases without limitation. Section 22 authorizes the Land Board on the expiry of any lease of a small grazing-run of settlement land, and notwithstanding any provisions as to removal, to subdivide the land and dispose of it in allotments, the outgoing lessee to have the right to one allotment, and preference in the disposal of the other allotments to be given to his sons over twenty-one years of age who have resided on the run for seven out of the ten years preceding the expiry of the original lease. Similar provisions with reference to the subdivision of small grazingruns of ordinary Crown land were made in 1913. Section 26 extends the provisions of section 50 of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1913 (relating to the constitution of special roading districts), so as to allow of the inclusion in such districts of settlement land, national-endowment land, and land acquired from Natives, as well as ordinary Crown land. Section 28 permits of an allotment of settlement land being disposed of, without competition, to men who had been continually employed on the land for not less than five yearsprior to its acquisition by the Crown, and who had been deprived of employment by such acquisition. Section 36 enables the Land Board to dispose of sand-dunes and other comparatively worthless lands to the occupiers of other lands in the vicinity. The purchaser is required to effect certain improvements before the issue of a title, including the planting of grass, lupin, or trees. Section 37 authorizes the exchange of any areas of an education reserve for areas of equal value of ordinary Crown land or national-endowment land ; Section 41 permits of the acquisition by the Crown in certain cases of land taken up under the Land Settlement Finance Act, This provision will relieve hardship in certain cases where land has been acquired by a land-settlement association at too high a price. Sections 42, 43, and 44 make temporary provisions (during the continuance of the war) for— (a.) Waiving restrictions as to cropping; (6.) Postponement of payment of rent on pastoral runs and on. small grazing-runs of settlement land. 1914, No. 52. The Wages Protection and Contractors' Liens Amendment Act, 1914.—This amendment is designed to relieve contractors from the onerous conditions to which they have for some time been subject by reason of judicial interpretations of the principal Act. Under