DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND SURVEY. NATIONAL ENDOWMENTS (REPORT ON) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1922; TOGETHER WITH SCHEDULE SHOWING AGGREGATE AREA OF LAND EXCLUDED FROM THE ENDOWMENT.

Appendix to the Journals of the House of Representatives, 1922 Session I, C-14

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1922. NEW ZEALAND.

DEPARTMENT OF LANDS AND SURVEY. NATIONAL ENDOWMENTS (REPORT ON) FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31st MARCH, 1922; TOGETHER WITH SCHEDULE SHOWING AGGREGATE AREA OF LAND EXCLUDED FROM THE ENDOWMENT.

Presented to both Houses of the General Assembly pursuant to Section 11 of the Lund Laws Amendment Act, 1920.

Sir, — Department of Lands and Survey, Wellington, 19th Juno, 1922. I have the honour to submit herewith report upon tho national endowments, showing also the aggregate areas of land excluded therefrom, and the aggregate area made freehold, &c, for the year ended 31st March, 1922. I have, &c, J. B. Thompson, Under-Secretary for Lands. The Hon. D. H. Guthrie, Minister of Lands.

REPORT. The national endowment was established by the National Endowment Act, 1907, as a permanent endowment for the purposes of education and of old-age pensions. This enactment, which afterwards became Part VII of the Land Act, 1908, sot apart an area of 7,000,000 acres in the various land districts of the Dominion as the nucleus of the endowment, and provided that until a total area of 9,000,000 acres would be reached all Crown lands then or thereafter held on renewable lease, or on small grazing-run lease under the Land Act, 1892, or the Land Act, 1908, were to become part of the national endowment. On the 11th November, 1920, the date of the passing of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1920, it was enacted by section 11 thereof that no lands were thereafter to become part of the national endowment. Tho prescribed maximum area was reached during the year ended 31st March, 1920. Section 11 of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1920, further provides that the Governor-General may, by Proclamation approved in Executive Council, declare that the undermentioned lands shall cease to be national endowment; prescribes the manner in which unoccupied lands so excluded from the endowment shall be dealt with ; and gives the lessees or licensees of occupied lands so excluded the right of acquiring the fee-simple of their holdings : — (a.) Any unoccupied national-endowment land, not exceeding in tho aggregate 20,000 acres; or (b.) Any national-endowment land disposed of under the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1915 ; or (c.) Any national-endowment land disposed of under tho Land Act, 1908, and held under lease or license by any person who is competent to acquire land under the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act, 1915 ; or (d.) Any national-endowment land held as a small grazing-run under a lease issued pursuant to the Land Act, 1892, or issued prior to the 10th December, 1918, under the Land Act, 1908.

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As subsection (15) of the above-quoted enactment provides that a report giving particulars of tho operations thereunder shall be laid before Parliament within thirty days after the commencement of next session, a schedule is appended giving the particulars prescribed for the period from the I.lth November, 1920, the date of the passing of the Act, to the 31st March, 1922. The lands excluded from the endowment during that period comprised one lot of national-endowment land in North Auckland Land District (32 acres and 21 perches) ; four lots in the Auckland Land District, totalling 3,364 acres 2 roods 18 perches ; and three small grazing-runs in the Hawke's Bay Land District, comprising 8,335 acres. No doubt the present financial position is responsible for the small number of lessees of national-endowment lands who desire to take advantage of the facilities provided for acquiring the fee-simple. Schedule. (a.) Aggregate area excluded from national endowment, 11,732 acres ; capital value, £8,981. (6.) Aggregate of area so excluded of which fee-simple has been acquired on the 31st March, 1922, 32 acres, (c.) Aggregate of area So excluded and still held under lease or license on the 31st March, 1922, 11,700 acres ; annual rent, £247. (d.) Aggregate of area so excluded and not disposed of by way of sale or lease, nil. (c.) Area of land purchased by Crown out of moneys in National Endowment Trust Account, nil. The total area comprised in the national endowment on tho 31st March, 1922, was approximately 9,064,694 acres. Of this an area of 6,979,274 acres was held on lease or license, subdivided into 4,445 holdings, the annual rental payable being £.137,550, while 1,636,562 acres have been set aside as provisional State forest. The total revenue derived from this endowment during the past year was £132,201.

Approximate Cost of Paper. —Preparation, not given; printing (560 copies), £2 Vs. 6d.

Authority : W. A. G. Skinner, Government Printer, Wellington.—l 922.

Price 3d.]