C.—l.

REPORT.

Review op Past Year. A perusal of the reports submitted by the various Commissioners of Crown Lands indicates that, taken on the whole, the past year has been the most satisfactory one for Crown tenants generally since the beginning of the slump period. Climatically the most notable feature was the unusually wet summer. The rainfall was particularly heavy in parts of the North Island, where continuous and heavy flooding was experienced in some districts. In the far South pastoralists had a good winter free from any serious snow losses. Although in certain localities the unseasonable summer had a detrimental effect on production, the dairy-farmers, generally speaking, experienced a fair year. The average price received for butterfat, however, was still below the level required to enable numbers of those engaged in this branch of farming to meet their obligations in full. The improvement in the price of wool, as compared with the previous year, together with the continued remunerative returns from fat lambs, resulted in those tenants engaged in sheepfarming having a good year. Early in the season grain crops promised to be exceptionally heavy, but as a result of broken weather during harvesting the yield was adversely affected. The Department has been somewhat concerned by the losses suffered by settlers by flooding in certain districts. These floods have emphasized the danger arising from the felling of bush in certain situations, and the Department is fully alive to the necessity of preserving the forest on steep country at high altitudes. This factor is being borne in mind when the question of dealing with lands in this category is under review. Following on the reinstatement of the revaluation provisions of the Land Act, a considerable number of applications for revaluations have been received, and a careful review is being made of the position of those Crown settlers who have applied for relief. Those settlers who are unable to meet their obligations through no fault of their own are receiving sympathetic consideration, and substantial concessions have been granted in all cases where relief is justifiable and warranted. The aim of the Department is to keep all deserving settlers on their holdings, and it is pleasing to be able to state that the majority of the tenants are doing their part and are making every efiort to meet their obligations. During the year there has been an indication of a renewal of- confidence in the future of farming and there has been a fair demand for properties suitable for either dairying or sheepfarming. Selections of Crown and settlement lands on all tenures during the year totalled 210,026 acres. This subject is dealt with more fully at a later stage of this report. At the 31st March the tenants on the books of the Department, excluding those established under the small-farms scheme, numbered 37,328, occupying a total area of approximately 18,850,000 acres. Pastoral runs account for 8,809,270 acres, while 1,854,500 acres of purchased estates are held under lease under the provisions of the Land for Settlements Act. Legislation. The most important section in the Land Laws Amendment Act, 1935, is that which repeals the statutory provisions, originally enacted in March, 1933, temporarily suspending the revaluation provisions of the Land Act and its amendments, and revives the operation of the revaluation laws. A further section deals with Deferred Payment licenses held on the thirty-four-and-a-half-year table, whereby it is now possible to grant new licenses for a similar term, treating the unpaid balance of the principal moneys as the purchase-price under the new licenses. The object of this legislation is to provide authority to enable periodical instalments to be reduced in cases where licensees are finding it difficult in times of stress to keep up their payments. Provision is also made for the authorizing of postponement of principal repayments under licenses held on the thirty-four-and-a-half-year term for any period not exceeding seven years. During the period of postponement interest only is payable on the due dates, and the licenses are extended for a corresponding term. The time during which holders of leases in perpetuity of settlement land and Cheviot Estate land might exercise the right to acquire the freehold of their holdings expired on 31st December last, and provision is made in the Act for the extension of this period to 31st December, 1940. Provision is also made for the granting of extensions, not exceeding seven years, of occupation-with-right-of-purchase licenses due to expire at any time not later than Ist January, 1941. The remaining sections of the Act are more or less of a machinery nature. The Reserves and other Lands Disposal Act, 1935, contains twenty-three clauses dealing with Crown lands, reserves, &c., while the Small Farms (Relief of Unemployment) Amendment Act, 1935, contains nine clauses, principally of a machinery nature. Land-development. The operations of the Lands Development Board so far as unoccupied Crown land is concerned have been confined mainly to a continuation of work on the Galatea Estate in the Auckland District and on the Kakariki Estate in Hawke's Bay, the net expenditure on developmental work having been £8,524 on the former and £3,718 on the latter.

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