πΌ Crown-owned land administration
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[0] => There are 5 categories of Crown-owned land: 1. land permanently set aside for national parks, reserves and domains (see F0040); 2. land held by individuals for farming or other purposes under lease or licence from the Crown; 3. land developed for subdivision and settlement as individual farms or other purposes; 4. unoccupied land, i.e. land vested in the Crown and not set aside for public purpose or held by any person in fee simple, or on lease or licence or under development by a government department; and 5. land acquired by the Crown for government works. There are five chronological phases of Crown land administration: 1840 to 1852, 1852 to 1876, 1876 to 1912, 1912 to 1987 and 1987 to current.
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[history] => 1840 to 1852
With the proclamation of British sovereignty on 21 May 1840, all New Zealand land was viewed as belonging to the Crown until the Crown chose to grant title to it. In signing the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori were deemed to have yielded to the Crown the exclusive right of pre-emption, i.e. the right to negotiate the purchase, over such lands as the proprietors might be disposed to alienate.
The early phase of Government land administration was determined by royal instructions issued on 14 August 1840, authorising the survey of the colony, the creation of reserves for public purposes, and the sale of land. These were given effect by the Governor, who remained in direct control of the administration of Crown land until 1849 when the first Commissioners of Crown Land were appointed to assist.
In 1844, Hobson’s successor, Governor Fitzroy, waived the Crown’s right to pre-emption because of limited public funds to purchase lands due to lengthy delays in settling pre-1840 land sale claims. The replacement land tax was not a success, and in 1846 the new Governor, Captain (later Sir) George Grey, restored the Crown’s pre-emptive right.
The Crown Lands Ordinance 1849 was introduced to regulate the occupation of waste lands of the Crown in the Province of New Ulster by the appointment of a Commissioner of Crown Lands with powers to hear disputes and pay compensation, and to issue depasturage licences (leases for operating pastoral runs) on Crown lands. With the issue of these licences, the principle of state leasehold was introduced. In 1851 the act was amended to extend over both islands and to include timber licences.
1852 to 1876
On 30 June 1852, the New Zealand Constitution Act enabled the General Assembly to make laws regulating the sale, disposal, and occupation of Crown land and authorised the division of New Zealand into provinces.
In 1854 the General Government authorised the Governor on the recommendation of the Provincial Superintendents to issue regulations to deal with Crown lands and when the Waste Lands Act was passed in 1858, control of Crown land and revenue from sales passed into the hands of the Provincial Councils. However, a Secretary of Crown Lands appointed under the Act was responsible for setting aside reserves and handling Crown Grants sent to the Governor for his signature, and the need to obtain the Governor’s approval for provincial regulations ensured there was some uniformity. During this period, provincial legislation was passed relating to the sale of land on deferred payments, ballot and auction, and naval and military settlers land grants, and by 1876, 8 million acres of land had been sold and another 2 million acres disposed of under free, mainly military, grants.
In 1862 the Crown's right to pre-emption of Maori land was abolished by the Native Lands Act and was not resumed until 1892.
The rise of Maori nationalism and increased resistance to the sale of land led to fighting in Taranaki, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty from the mid-1860s (referred to variously as the Maori Wars, Land Wars or New Zealand Wars). In 1863 the New Zealand Settlements Act enabled the Government to confiscate the land of any Maori tribe that had "engaged in rebellion against the Crown", and to set apart districts for colonisation and settlement. Altogether over 3 million acres of Maori land were confiscated under this Act with under half of this area subsequently returned to the Maori or purchased by the Crown.
From 1868 the provincial Land Offices were responsible for the administration and sale of land confiscated under the Act. In 1870 the Confiscated Lands Office was established to manage the sale and disposal of such lands until 1876 when confiscated lands were treated the same as Crown waste lands.
The Native Land Purchase Department had been originally established in 1854 with Donald McLean as Principal Land Purchase Officer but after the waiving of the Crown's right of pre-emption in 1862, the department was abolished in 1865 only to be resurrected in 1873 as a result of the Public Works and Immigration Act 1870. Under this Act, the government was empowered to requisition land for public works purposes, including for railways, education and defence.
1876 to 1912
With the abolition of the provinces in 1876, the maze of provincial legislation was replaced by the Land Act 1877 which provided for a uniform system of dealing with Crown land under the administration of the Minister of Lands. The Commissioners and Waste Lands Boards of the provinces were replaced with land districts and a Land Board appointed for each with a Commissioner of Crown Lands as chairman responsible to the Minister. The system followed in the disposal of land was of free selection resulting in much of the land being sold to large-scale pastoralists. By 1892 13.6 million acres was freehold and 14.2 million acres was leased from the Crown, of which 11.8 million acres was held on pastoral lease.
Successive Ministers of Land made efforts to discourage land speculation and encourage closer settlement, including the introduction of the village homestead and special settlement systems in the 1880s. In 1892, the Land Act and the Land for Settlement Act allowed the State to gain control over land aggregation and closer settlement of established farming areas. The new laws introduced three systems of obtaining land from the Crown – buyers could purchase the land for cash, lease it from the State for 25 years with a right to purchase for the first ten, or lease it for 999 years, known as a "lease in perpetuity". Between 1892 and 1911, the Crown offered 8.5 million acres for settlement and this was settled in 33,000 land holdings.
From 1903, the Government commenced the drainage, reclamation and settlement of swamp land in the Hauraki Plains, North Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.
The "lease in perpetuity" system was abolished in 1907 by the Land Laws Amendment Act and tenants were given the right to purchase from the Crown.
1912 to 1987
The First World War brought an end to the era of general land settlement and concentration on restricted classes of settlers, ex-servicemen and the unemployed.
The Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1915 marked the adoption of a major scheme of settling returned soldiers on Crown land as well as private land bought by the Crown. High post-war produce prices and the heavy demand for land, forced prices up but once produce prices fell, many of the new settlers found themselves in financial difficulties and either abandoned their farms or applied to have their properties revalued and the mortgage and interest rates reduced.
With the Depression of the 1930s and growing unemployment, the Government set about developing what remained of the unsettled Crown lands. A Lands Development Board was established in 1929 and started the development of previously unsuitable farmland in the central North Island, making use of the abundance of cheap labour. In 1932-33, a Small Farms Board was established to set up work camps for the unemployed on blocks of unimproved or deteriorated Crown land. By 1941, the Lands Development Board had settled 113 farms and another 388 families had been settled under the Small Farms Scheme, but with the start of World War II, the resulting lack of manpower and equipment shortages brought this work to a halt.
In 1941 the Lands Development Board and the Small Farms Board were replaced by a Land Settlement Board, and to avoid repetition of the inflation of land prices, the government passed legislation in 1943 effectively freezing land prices and controlling land sales through a Land Sales Court.
In 1961, the restriction of making land for settlement available to only ex-servicemen was lifted, although the provision of Crown land for settlement and financial assistance to farmers remained into the 1980s.
1987 to current
Significant reconstruction of the public sector began in 1987, including reorganisation of public environmental and public works administrations. Much of the Crown’s commercial or productive land was subsequently transferred to state-owned enterprises.
Administration of Crown land development activities, including the management of a wide range of Crown land tenure leases and licenses, was placed with Land Corporation Limited (LandCorp), a public company established under the State Owned Enterprises Act 1986, whilst the newly established Department of Survey and Land Information retained core statutory and regulatory responsibilities in relation to the Crown’s interests in land matters, and in the allocation of Crown land to the new Department of Conservation and state-owned enterprises.
During 1996, Knight Frank (NZ) Limited, a privately owned company, acquired the property services subsidiary of LandCorp, LandCorp Property Limited, together with its district and branch offices.
As at August 2004, the Commissioner of Crown Lands exercised rights of ownership and had statutory responsibility for 3 million hectares of Crown land or 11% of New Zealand's land area. This land was either Crown land administered under the Land Act 1948 and the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998, or fell into the category of "lands of the Crown" (a collective term to describe land held by the department usually under the Public Works Act 1981, New Zealand Railways Corporation Restructuring Act 1990 and the Crown Forests Assets Act 1989).
Legislation:
14 August 1840 Royal Instructions [Great Britain, House of Commons Papers. N.Z. Vol. 1838-40. Correspondence with the Secretary of State relative to NZ. 1840, p.37]
23 August 1849 Crown Lands Act [The Ordinance of the Leg. Council of N.Z. 13 Vict. Sess. X No.1, p.310]
1852 N.Z. Constitution Act
1858 Waste Lands Act
1862 Native Lands Act
1863 New Zealand Settlements Act
1877 Land Act
1892 Land Act
1892 Land for Settlement Act
1894 Public Works Act
1903 Bush and Swamp Crown Lands Settlement Act
1907 Land Laws Amendment Act
1915 Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act
1928 Public Works Act
1929 Land Laws Amendment Act
1948 Land Act
1981 Public Works Act
1986 State-owned Enterprises Act
1989 Crown Forests Assets Act
1990 New Zealand Railways Corporation Restructuring Act
1998 Crown Pastoral Land Act
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Show History
1840 to 1852
With the proclamation of British sovereignty on 21 May 1840, all New Zealand land was viewed as belonging to the Crown until the Crown chose to grant title to it. In signing the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori were deemed to have yielded to the Crown the exclusive right of pre-emption, i.e. the right to negotiate the purchase, over such lands as the proprietors might be disposed to alienate.
The early phase of Government land administration was determined by royal instructions issued on 14 August 1840, authorising the survey of the colony, the creation of reserves for public purposes, and the sale of land. These were given effect by the Governor, who remained in direct control of the administration of Crown land until 1849 when the first Commissioners of Crown Land were appointed to assist.
In 1844, Hobson’s successor, Governor Fitzroy, waived the Crown’s right to pre-emption because of limited public funds to purchase lands due to lengthy delays in settling pre-1840 land sale claims. The replacement land tax was not a success, and in 1846 the new Governor, Captain (later Sir) George Grey, restored the Crown’s pre-emptive right.
The Crown Lands Ordinance 1849 was introduced to regulate the occupation of waste lands of the Crown in the Province of New Ulster by the appointment of a Commissioner of Crown Lands with powers to hear disputes and pay compensation, and to issue depasturage licences (leases for operating pastoral runs) on Crown lands. With the issue of these licences, the principle of state leasehold was introduced. In 1851 the act was amended to extend over both islands and to include timber licences.
1852 to 1876
On 30 June 1852, the New Zealand Constitution Act enabled the General Assembly to make laws regulating the sale, disposal, and occupation of Crown land and authorised the division of New Zealand into provinces.
In 1854 the General Government authorised the Governor on the recommendation of the Provincial Superintendents to issue regulations to deal with Crown lands and when the Waste Lands Act was passed in 1858, control of Crown land and revenue from sales passed into the hands of the Provincial Councils. However, a Secretary of Crown Lands appointed under the Act was responsible for setting aside reserves and handling Crown Grants sent to the Governor for his signature, and the need to obtain the Governor’s approval for provincial regulations ensured there was some uniformity. During this period, provincial legislation was passed relating to the sale of land on deferred payments, ballot and auction, and naval and military settlers land grants, and by 1876, 8 million acres of land had been sold and another 2 million acres disposed of under free, mainly military, grants.
In 1862 the Crown's right to pre-emption of Maori land was abolished by the Native Lands Act and was not resumed until 1892.
The rise of Maori nationalism and increased resistance to the sale of land led to fighting in Taranaki, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty from the mid-1860s (referred to variously as the Maori Wars, Land Wars or New Zealand Wars). In 1863 the New Zealand Settlements Act enabled the Government to confiscate the land of any Maori tribe that had "engaged in rebellion against the Crown", and to set apart districts for colonisation and settlement. Altogether over 3 million acres of Maori land were confiscated under this Act with under half of this area subsequently returned to the Maori or purchased by the Crown.
From 1868 the provincial Land Offices were responsible for the administration and sale of land confiscated under the Act. In 1870 the Confiscated Lands Office was established to manage the sale and disposal of such lands until 1876 when confiscated lands were treated the same as Crown waste lands.
The Native Land Purchase Department had been originally established in 1854 with Donald McLean as Principal Land Purchase Officer but after the waiving of the Crown's right of pre-emption in 1862, the department was abolished in 1865 only to be resurrected in 1873 as a result of the Public Works and Immigration Act 1870. Under this Act, the government was empowered to requisition land for public works purposes, including for railways, education and defence.
1876 to 1912
With the abolition of the provinces in 1876, the maze of provincial legislation was replaced by the Land Act 1877 which provided for a uniform system of dealing with Crown land under the administration of the Minister of Lands. The Commissioners and Waste Lands Boards of the provinces were replaced with land districts and a Land Board appointed for each with a Commissioner of Crown Lands as chairman responsible to the Minister. The system followed in the disposal of land was of free selection resulting in much of the land being sold to large-scale pastoralists. By 1892 13.6 million acres was freehold and 14.2 million acres was leased from the Crown, of which 11.8 million acres was held on pastoral lease.
Successive Ministers of Land made efforts to discourage land speculation and encourage closer settlement, including the introduction of the village homestead and special settlement systems in the 1880s. In 1892, the Land Act and the Land for Settlement Act allowed the State to gain control over land aggregation and closer settlement of established farming areas. The new laws introduced three systems of obtaining land from the Crown – buyers could purchase the land for cash, lease it from the State for 25 years with a right to purchase for the first ten, or lease it for 999 years, known as a "lease in perpetuity". Between 1892 and 1911, the Crown offered 8.5 million acres for settlement and this was settled in 33,000 land holdings.
From 1903, the Government commenced the drainage, reclamation and settlement of swamp land in the Hauraki Plains, North Auckland and the Bay of Plenty.
The "lease in perpetuity" system was abolished in 1907 by the Land Laws Amendment Act and tenants were given the right to purchase from the Crown.
1912 to 1987
The First World War brought an end to the era of general land settlement and concentration on restricted classes of settlers, ex-servicemen and the unemployed.
The Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1915 marked the adoption of a major scheme of settling returned soldiers on Crown land as well as private land bought by the Crown. High post-war produce prices and the heavy demand for land, forced prices up but once produce prices fell, many of the new settlers found themselves in financial difficulties and either abandoned their farms or applied to have their properties revalued and the mortgage and interest rates reduced.
With the Depression of the 1930s and growing unemployment, the Government set about developing what remained of the unsettled Crown lands. A Lands Development Board was established in 1929 and started the development of previously unsuitable farmland in the central North Island, making use of the abundance of cheap labour. In 1932-33, a Small Farms Board was established to set up work camps for the unemployed on blocks of unimproved or deteriorated Crown land. By 1941, the Lands Development Board had settled 113 farms and another 388 families had been settled under the Small Farms Scheme, but with the start of World War II, the resulting lack of manpower and equipment shortages brought this work to a halt.
In 1941 the Lands Development Board and the Small Farms Board were replaced by a Land Settlement Board, and to avoid repetition of the inflation of land prices, the government passed legislation in 1943 effectively freezing land prices and controlling land sales through a Land Sales Court.
In 1961, the restriction of making land for settlement available to only ex-servicemen was lifted, although the provision of Crown land for settlement and financial assistance to farmers remained into the 1980s.
1987 to current
Significant reconstruction of the public sector began in 1987, including reorganisation of public environmental and public works administrations. Much of the Crown’s commercial or productive land was subsequently transferred to state-owned enterprises.
Administration of Crown land development activities, including the management of a wide range of Crown land tenure leases and licenses, was placed with Land Corporation Limited (LandCorp), a public company established under the State Owned Enterprises Act 1986, whilst the newly established Department of Survey and Land Information retained core statutory and regulatory responsibilities in relation to the Crown’s interests in land matters, and in the allocation of Crown land to the new Department of Conservation and state-owned enterprises.
During 1996, Knight Frank (NZ) Limited, a privately owned company, acquired the property services subsidiary of LandCorp, LandCorp Property Limited, together with its district and branch offices.
As at August 2004, the Commissioner of Crown Lands exercised rights of ownership and had statutory responsibility for 3 million hectares of Crown land or 11% of New Zealand's land area. This land was either Crown land administered under the Land Act 1948 and the Crown Pastoral Land Act 1998, or fell into the category of "lands of the Crown" (a collective term to describe land held by the department usually under the Public Works Act 1981, New Zealand Railways Corporation Restructuring Act 1990 and the Crown Forests Assets Act 1989).
Legislation:
14 August 1840 Royal Instructions [Great Britain, House of Commons Papers. N.Z. Vol. 1838-40. Correspondence with the Secretary of State relative to NZ. 1840, p.37]
23 August 1849 Crown Lands Act [The Ordinance of the Leg. Council of N.Z. 13 Vict. Sess. X No.1, p.310]
1852 N.Z. Constitution Act
1858 Waste Lands Act
1862 Native Lands Act
1863 New Zealand Settlements Act
1877 Land Act
1892 Land Act
1892 Land for Settlement Act
1894 Public Works Act
1903 Bush and Swamp Crown Lands Settlement Act
1907 Land Laws Amendment Act
1915 Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act
1928 Public Works Act
1929 Land Laws Amendment Act
1948 Land Act
1981 Public Works Act
1986 State-owned Enterprises Act
1989 Crown Forests Assets Act
1990 New Zealand Railways Corporation Restructuring Act
1998 Crown Pastoral Land Act
- π’ Land Information New Zealand (LINZ), Dunedin Processing Centre (1996 ‑ 2010)
- π’ Department of Survey and Land Information, Dunedin District Office (1987 ‑ 1996)
- π’ Department of Lands and Survey, Dunedin District Office (1891 ‑ 1987)
- π’ Department of Survey and Land Information, Invercargill District Office (1987 ‑ 1996)
- π’ Department of Lands and Survey, Invercargill District Office (1891 ‑ 1987)
- π’ Department of Lands, Hamilton District Office (1987 ‑ 1990)
- π’ Land Information New Zealand, Hamilton Regional Office (1996 ‑ )
- π’ Land Information New Zealand, Gisborne Branch Office (1996 ‑ 2001)
- π’ Land Information New Zealand, Auckland Regional Office (1996 ‑ 2011)
- π’ Department of Survey and Land Information, Office of Crown Lands Hamilton (1990 ‑ 1996)
- π’ Department of Lands, Auckland District Office (1987 ‑ 1990)
- π’ District Land Office, Auckland (1849 ‑ 1892)
- π’ Arrow District Land Office
- π’ Land Information New Zealand Blenheim Branch Office (1996 ‑ 2001)
- π’ Land Information New Zealand, New Plymouth Branch Office (1996 ‑ 2002)
- π’ Gisborne Land Office (1889 ‑ 1891)
- π’ New Zealand Company Principal Surveyor, Otago (1844 ‑ 1852)
- π’ New Zealand Company Resident Agent, Otago (1847 ‑ 1851)
- π’ Land Information New Zealand, Invercargill Branch Office (1996 ‑ 2001)
- π’ Land Information New Zealand, National Office (1996 ‑ )
- π’ Department of Survey and Land Information Blenheim Office (1987 ‑ 1996)
- π’ Landcorp Farming Limited, Head Office (1987 ‑ )
- π’ Crown Lands Department, Invercargill (1861 ‑ 1891)
- π’ Crown Lands Department, Dunedin (1851 ‑ 1891)
- π’ Department of Survey and Land Information, Head Office (1987 ‑ 1996)
- π’ Department of Lands and Survey, Head Office (1891 ‑ 1987)
- π’ Crown Lands Department, Head Office (1858 ‑ 1891)
- π’ Department of Internal Affairs, Head Office (1840 ‑ 1858)
Show 24 items
- π Land Information (1999 ‑ )
- π Lands (2) (1883 ‑ 1884)
- π Crown Lands (2) (1872 ‑ 1878)
- π Crown Lands and Immigration (1872)
- π Crown Lands (1) (1858 ‑ 1864)
- π Colonial Secretary (1841 ‑ 1858)
- π Lands (4) (1858 ‑ 1998)