§ Mr. GINNELLasked the Chief Secretary if he will state the total amount of grass land now held and used by the Congested Districts Board, with 22W the number of cattle and sheep fed upon it; when the Board began this kind of farming; whether they have withheld from the congested people during all that time land which Parliament created the Board to distribute; by what method the Board secure the public interest in the buying and selling of stock; and, seeing that relatives of certain members of the Board are engaged in this traffic and that there is no known purpose but their benefit for retaining the land for years, whether he will have the Board's accounts submitted to a competent and impartial committee of inquiry?
§ Mr. BIRRELLOn the 1st November, 1914, the Congested Districts Board had on hand about 130,000 acres of untenanted grass lands, and during the year ended on that date the Board had grazing on those lands 26,099 cattle, 8,692 sheep, and 2,484 horses, which were nearly all owned by small landholders in their neighbourhood. The Board have been thus using untenanted lands from the date of their first purchases, finding this the most advantageous employment of these lands pending their distribution, which is arranged for as quickly as the Board's resources allow, but which can only be satisfactorily carried out when large areas are available to which tenants from congested districts can be gradually migrated. The Board's own stock (which in November last consisted of 379 cattle and 9,573 sheep) are bought and sold at public fairs. So far as the Board are aware, no relatives of any of their members are engaged in buying or selling their stock or in any way in connection with the rearrangement of the grass land in hand. Careful accounts are kept for all farms, and are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General.