C—l

The Land Valuation Court Act provided that the Judge and other two members of the Land Sales Court should be the first Judge and members of the Land Valuation ■Court. His Excellency the Governor-General in Council appointed the members of Land Sales Committees to be members of the Land Valuation Committees. The same number of Committees (16) were appointed. I should like to pay a tribute here to the efficient manner in which those members -of the Lands Department who were officials in the Land Sales Court registries performed their work. To most of these officers Court work was something new. Many of the registries were often short staffed, yet the filing and handling of applications were dealt with expeditiously, and, in spite of considerable pressure of work at times, the staff endeavoured to give legal practitioners and the general public the service which was their due. _ To those who have been transferred to the Justice Department I wish them every success in their new Department. Exercise of Crown Rights Under Part II and Part 111 (Section 51) of the Servicemen's Settlement and Land Sales Act, 1943 Details of land acquired under Parts II and 111 (section 51) of the Act are given in a later section of this report under the heading of." Land Development and Settlement of Ex-servicemen."

Return of Applications for the Year Ended 31st March, 1949

7

Registry. Brought Forward From Previous Year. Received During Year. Granted Without Hearing. Granted After Hearing. Granted Subject to Conditions Refused or Withdrawn. Total Finalized. Action Incomplete. Farm lands— Auckland Hamilton Gisborne Napier New Plymouth Wellington Blenheim Nelson Hokitika Christchurch Dunedin Invercargill 167 143 24 37 58 62 9 28 5 75 84 72 975 789 143 227 299 404 62 227 59 721 491 403 400 414 109 167 210 238 40 135 40 456 235 219 90 23 12 4 3 2 3 1 23 2 5 441 267 20 63 83 142 16 64 14 173 173 124 66 93 6 9 24 37 6 20 2 42 75 59 997 797 147 243 317 420 64 222 57 694 485 407 145 135 20 21 40 46 7 33 7 102 90 68 Totals 764 4,800 2,663 168 1,580 439 4,850 714 •Other lands— Auckland Hamilton Gisborne Napier New Plymouth „ Wellington Blenheim Nelson Hokitika Christchurch Dunedin Invercargill 914 512 44 227 116 818 22 95 34 463 372 161 9,907 3,917 673 1,862 1,410 7,585 458 1,058 392 5,261 2,949 1,489 5,062 2,155 440 1,140 777 3,644 210 592 249 2,539 1,267 711 824 100 40 13 1 48 7 2 4 131 5 7 3,584 1,536 173 621 5.15 3,508 204 367 137 2,370 1,439 660 255 205 33 95 70 362 14 66 14 186 254 110 9,725 3,996 686 1,869 1,363 7,562 435 1,027 404 5,226 2,965 1,488 1,096 433 31 220 163 841 45 126 22 498 356 162 Totals 3,778 36,961 18,786 1,182 15,114 1,664 36,746 3,993 Grand totals .. 4,542 41,761 21,449 1,350 16,694 2,103 41,596 4,707