172 FOREST ALIENATION. 
FOREST ALIENATION. 

Somy 30,000 Acres or Bush LAnp on Poor Sort (DEMARCATABLE Fornst) 
BEING ALIENATED YEARLY. 
Tur table below shows the areas on which exemption from rent and 
local rates has been obtained on the ground that the bush 1s on poor 
soil and would not otherwise pay to deforest. The return has the ad- 
vantage of embracing figures estimated and checked by Crown Lands 
officials for the purposes of money grants and the yearly statistics. It 
therefore does not represent loose estimates, seen in other returns of 
bush land. 
The area of bush land (all probably demarcatable forest) alienated 
and getting these exemptions during the last fourteen years has been 
690,510 acres of heavy bush, 139,321 acres of light bush, and 92,143 acres 
of scrub, or a bush-land total of 829,831 acres. The abstract below 
shows that under the stimulus of rent-remission, and the rush to take up 
poor bush land rent-free, for periods varying from two to four 
years, the heavy bush alienated during the first four years amounted 
to 567,963 acres, or at the rate of 141,991 acres per year, while the lhght- 
bush land amounted to 129,951 acres, or at the rate of 32,488 acres per 
year. Since then, from 1909 to 1918, the alienation of heavy bush has 
averaged 12,255 acres per year. and light 13,192 acres per year. 
Transactions under the Bush and Swamp Crown Land Settlement Act, 
1908 (now embodied in Section 127 of the Land Act, 1908). 
et 



Area selected during the Year, | 










org tee 5 ” | | Remarks. 
Heavy Bush. | Light Bush, | Scrub. | 
ee —= = ic 
| Acres. | Acres. | Acres. 
1905 .. | 182,779 | 54,112 | 20,855 | Act in operation from 30th October, 
| 1903 ; return for one year and five 
| months, 
1906. 139,670 | 36, 164 23,437 | Total rent remitted during year, 
| £7,034, of which £5,236 was on 
| | heavy-bush land and £975 on 
| light-bush land, 
1907 4s 181,378 | 26,591 37,870 
1908 .. 114,136 13,284 | 6,564 
1909. 13,268 > an 
LOu oe 18,466 ys oy | Rent remitted, £2,017 only. 
MEE Og; 10,308 * ee Rent remitted, £878 only. 
1325 733. 21,524 ar “3 In the Wellington District. 
191s 2. 665 rs ar +. 
1914S, 64 He +3 
15. 23,257 7 An In the Nelson District, 
1916 =i. 91,512 2.579 | 2,370 . 
117 He 10,583 | 4,771 | 1,047 
1918. 2,964 2,020 | 4. Rent remitted, £122 only. 
Total... 690,510 139,321 92,143 
Average 49 , 322-2 9, 951-5 | 6,581-6 | 



This is independent of Maori land and Maori felling-rights, which, 
with the sanction of the Maori Land Board, can be freelv alienated. 
