39

a—9a

APPENDIX C. OPINIONS OF LAND BOARDS ON INQUIRY BOARDS' REPORTS. North Auckland. 30th June, 1923. I enclose herewith the report of the Inquiry Board, together with the minutes and recommendations of the Land Board dealing with each case. When the Inquiry Board had finished its inquiries, the Land Board, in accordance with your instructions, met the Board in conference, and this took place, on the 30th and 31st May. The report of the. Inquiry Board was carefully considered, all the recommendations being passed in review, and the members of the Board questioned concerning their recommendations. After the conference the Land Board went carefully into the case of every soldier which had been investigated by the Inquiry Board, giving due consideration to the Inquiry Board's conclusions before making the Land Board's recommendation dealing with the particular case. It is obvious that the Commissioner and the Land Board, with years of experience in dealing with these settlers, supported by the reports of the Rangers and valuers during the time, were in a much better position to form a true estimate of the soldier, his capacity, his methods of farming, and of his ultimate prospect of success, than any Inquiry Board could possibly be after a cursory inspection such as had been made. This fact became quite apparent to the Land Board as the particular cases were dealt with, and it was plain in many cases that the Inquiry Board had incorrectly gauged the position. The Inquiry Board's recommendations fall under these headings : — (1.) Cancellations of arrears of instalments. (2.) Cancellations of arrears of rent. (3.) Reduction in value of property. (4.) Reduction of capital value of settlement land. (5.) Arrears of instalment of interest and rent to be capitalized. (6.) Recommendation that the second mortgage on properties acquired under section 2 should be extinguished. Now, in regard to the recommendation for the cancellation of arrears, the Land Board gave this proposal very careful consideration, and came to the conclusion, that it would be a pernicious proceeding to cancel arrears of interest or of rent, except in certain special circumstances, such as a case where a property had been purchased for a sum which was now recognized as being in excess of the value of the property, and consequently the soldier had undertaken to pay interest on a sum in excess of the actual value of the land, or where he had been asked to pay rent based on a capital sum in excess of the real value of the land. For instance, a soldier may have received an advance of £2,500 to purchase a property on a valuation, we will say, of £2,700 at the time of purchase. Assuming that the value of that property has now been determined as £2,000, it is clear that the soldier had. entered into an obligation to pay interest on £500 more than the value of the property. Now, if there is to be any remission or cancellation of interest, it is clear that there should only be a cancellation of the interest on the excess value of the property. The Inquiry Board, however, has made sweeping recommendations for cancellation of all arrears, even in cases where no exception was taken to the valuation of the property. As I have said above, the Land Board considers that this would be a pernicious proceeding, and, if the recommendations were carried out, would cause serious discontent among those, soldier settlers who have made an effort, and perhaps considerable sacrifices, to fulfil their obligations. In all such cases the Land Board has recommended, instead of cancellation of arrears, postponement of the arrears of instalments to the end of the term of the mortgage. This course of action is already authorized by law, and it is submitted that if this recommendation is acted upon it will give real and satisfactory relief to all those soldiers in arrears, and at the same time "will not be inflicting any injustice on the men who up to the present have used every endeavour to pay their interest and fulfil their obligations. In granting any relief to the soldier settlers as the outcome of I he reports of these Inquiry Boards, due regard should be given to the very important consideration that only a comparatively small proportion of the soldiers applied for such relief. For instance, in this district, whereas there are 1,150 soldier farmers on our books, only 379 made application to have their cases investigated by the Inquiry Board. It is certain that there will be further applications for relief, and there is no doubt that when the reports of these Inquiry Boards are acted upon and the results become known, if concessions are made indiscriminately, which have the effect of putting men who have made no great effort to fulfil their obligations in a better position than those who have made struggles and sacrifices to pay their way, then there will be widespread dissatisfaction, and there will be a serious aftermath of additional requisitions for relief. I take it that the Government and the country are anxious that the measure of relief to be afforded to the soldier settlers now should be the end of the matter, and that, the position having been seriously faced now, there should be no calls on the public purse of a like nature in the future. lam confident that there could be no more fruitful source of widespread dissatisfaction than the proposal of this Inquiry Board for the indiscriminate cancellation of arrears. The Land Board's recommendation 9—C. 9A. •