Land Act, 1933

Power to the Land Commission in certain cases to declare the appointed day for untenanted land before the price is fixed.

30.—(1) Where a provisional list of untenanted lands or a notice under this Part of this Act of intention to declare that lands are required for relief of congestion has been published and no objection thereto has been lodged or if lodged has been finally disposed of, the Land Commission may, if they consider it expedient so to do for the purpose of the immediate distribution of such lands by order declare the appointed day for such lands notwithstanding that the price has not been agreed upon or fixed, and by the same order declare the price (in this section called the provisional price) at which it is proposed to purchase such lands.

(2) In default of agreement, the price of lands in respect of which the appointed day has been declared under the foregoing sub-section of this section shall be fixed by reference to the value thereof as on the appointed day in accordance with the provisions of the Land Purchase Acts in that behalf.

(3) If the price of lands in respect of which the appointed day has been declared under this section exceeds the provisional price, the Land Commission shall make an additional advance and issue additional land bonds for the purchase of such lands and there shall be payable by the Land Commission to the person entitled to the receipt of the rents and profits of such land before the purchase thereof a sum equal to interest (less income tax) on the additional land bonds so issued from the appointed day to the date of the issue of such additional land bonds.

(4) If the price of lands in respect of which the appointed day has been declared under this section is less than the provisional price, the Land Commission shall pay into the Land Bond Fund such sum as will be sufficient to redeem the land bonds issued in excess of the price of such lands and shall be entitled to recover the amount so paid into the Land Bond Fund, together with the interest paid on the bonds so redeemed from the appointed day to the date on which such bonds are redeemed, out of the purchase money of such lands so far as it shall not have been distributed on allocation, or from such person as shall have received such purchase money or any part thereof and shall be found liable to make such repayments.

(5) Notwithstanding anything in section 36 of the Land Act, 1931 , interest on land bonds advanced as the price of untenanted lands for which a provisional price has been declared under this section shall be paid to the person appearing to the Land Commission to be the owner of the lands prior to the purchase, but the Judicial Commissioner may, on the application of any interested person, direct that such interest or any part thereof shall be paid to such interested person.