2

C—1.

Since the passing of the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1912, postponements of rent, owing to circumstances of necessity either from misfortune or temporarily non-productive condition of holdings, have been granted to twenty-six tenants, the amount of rent so postponed totalling £1,400. Coversions op Tenure. The right of acquiring the freehold has been exercised during the year by 147 settlers, occupying an area of 33,366 acres, under the perpetual-lease, occupation-with-right-of-purchase, and lease-in-perpeutity tenures. The liberal terms on which the freehold right was granted by Parliament last session to holders of leases in perpetuity of ordinary Crown lands and renewable leases of settlement lands has, as might be expected, led to a large volume of inquiry and considerable increase of work in dealing with the applications. A few purchases of leases in perpetuity had already been completed before the close of the year, and many more were in the intermediate stages of completion. In the case of the renewable leases of settlement lands a numbr of applications had been received and placed in the hands of the Valuation Department for the valuation required by law. The result of the early valuations received shows that the terms offered will prove exceedingly favourable to the tenants, especially in cases of suburban or township lands and the older and more favoured settlements, where considerable increases of value have taken place. During the year twelve holders, occupying an area of 3,760 acres, have exchanged from the mining district land occupation and Hauraki pastoral license tenures to renewable lease. These exchanges have hitherto been limited by the necessity for completing surveys and providing road-access prior to exchange, but as increase in the survey staff has now made it possible to put several officers on this work, there is every probability that a considerably greater number of conversions to renewable lease will be effected in the future, with corresponding benefit to the permanent settlement of the Coromandel Peninsula. Rangers' Reports and General Conditions of Settlement. All the Rangers report that their inspections of Crown tenants' holdings discover generally a very satisfactory extent of genuine fulfilment of the requirements of bona fide and permanent settlement. The residential conditions in many cases are not fulfilled as completely as might be desired, but in the remoter localities the difficulties of access and lack of schools have much to do with the question of residence, and strict enforcement would involve considerable hardship under such circumstances. When reasonable access is provided (and schools where the necessary number of scholars can be enrolled), bona fide settlers, as a rule, are prompt to get on to their sections. The conditions of settlement in many parts of the Auckland District still involve unavoidable hardships which lender hard-and-fast enforcement of conditions inadvisable, and the genuine settler deserves, and may rest assured that he will receive, sympathetic consideration from the Land Board to any reasonable extent consistent with the interests of the State. 'The past season has been an unusually dry one in all parts of the district, and to some extent this has been an advantage to many settlers who were unable to get good burns the previous year, but have now succeeded in doing so. In the northern part of the district, however, the drought has been more severe than elsewhere, and settlers have suffered not only from depreciation of revenue from the butter industry, but also from fires, which in many cases have burnt much useful pasture and fencing, and threatened homesteads with destruction. When, however, the first stress of these hardships has passed, good will result from the renewing of pastures, towards which assistance in the supply of grass-seed is being given by the Government. The large areas of bush that have been felled and successfully burned, and will now be laid down in pasture, will materially help the productiveness and prosperity of the district. In the south-western part of the district large areas of bush felled during the past two years have been cleared by good clean burns, and will now be brought into pasture. Settlement is increasing steadily, and farmers are coming in from, other districts, bringing fresh capital and energy, and dairying is progressing and adding to the prosperity of the district. In the eastern part of the Bay of Plenty district the rough character of the country necessitates fairly large areas for sheep and cattle raising, and the progress of this part of the district is being much retarded by the difficulties of access, which deprive the settlers of a market for fat stock. The extension of the railway from Gisborne is, however, bringing a market nearer for them. In the Rotorua district the settlers have to contend with " bush-sickness," and also suffer in many parts from lack of a convenient water-supply, the only water being in inaccessible gorges. In the meanwhile the timber industry is proving of assistance to the settlers, and there appear to be grounds for hope that the clearing of the country and improvement of pastures will in course of time remove " bush-sickness." The settlement of the plains near Waihi, which were disposed of late in 1911, has been retarded by industrial difficulties, and there is a larger proportion than usual of defaulters in this locality. This condition will, however, remedy itself before long, and the development of these lands will introduce a new factor in the prosperity of that part of the district. In the Hauraki Plains settlement continues to progress in a very satisfactory manner. A process of natural selection has resulted in the weeding-out of settlers not fully adapted to the work of developing such lands, and their place lias been taken by others with better prospects of success. The unwatering of the lands is necessarily a slow process, which cannot be hastened with advantage, but what has already been achieved shows that the successful settlement of these lands will contribute enormously to the success of the district. In the great majority of cases these settlers are complying very satisfactorily with the requirements of the law.