Railway Lands—Their Control and Use.

(By Land Office Staff.)

When railway construction is to be undertaken in new zealand, the public works department acquires all the land considered necessary for the convenient working of the railway. in general, it has been the practice to acquire a strip of land, half a chain in width, on either side of the line of railway. of course, for station yards, and in other cases (as explained in this article), a much greater area than the chain wide strip is acquired. once the lines are constructed, the land is handed over to the Working Railways Department.

In the year 1880 transactions appertaining to Railway lands became so many and varied that it was considered advisable to establish an office to deal solely with such matters. The Railway Land Office—a sub-branch of the Maintenance Branch under the control of the Chief Engineer—was accordingly established, and since that time it has steadily increased in its usefulness, until to-day it is “a very important cog in the wheel of service.” The Land Officer and his staff could well be termed the “watch dogs” of Railway land.

With 3,148 miles of track open for use, a large area of land is necessarily required, and the aim of this article is to indicate the many and varied transactions that are carried out in the Railway Land Office in securing the land required for extensions and alterations, and also what actions are taken to make its lands productive.

As can well be imagined, the area of land originally acquired sometimes becomes quite inadequate for present day needs, and additional land must be obtained. This land is acquired by the Working Railways Department.

There are various methods by which land required for Railway purposes may be obtained. The method generally adopted by the Department is per medium of a proclamation in the New Zealand Gazette. The Department's title to the land so acquired dates from the time of the publication of the proclamation. Once the proclamation is published, the various owners of the land must be compensated for loss sustained, and this is sometimes quite a lengthy business. It has been said that it is the difference in opinion which keeps the world going. In no way can this be better illustrated than by the opinions of owners as expressed in their claims as to what their land is worth when the Department has taken a portion. In page 19 order to arrive at a basis for settlement, negotiations are entered into. In cases where no settlement can be agreed upon, the claim is submitted to arbitration per medium of the Compensation Court. It is a noteworthy fact that the services of this Court are rarely required by the Department.

It has been found necessary at times to acquire land (as illustrated) which is adorned with beautiful homes and gardens—sometimes the work of a lifetime of the owner. Great sentimental value is naturally attached to these properties, and this fact has to be recognised when assessing compensation.

During the last fifteen years the amount of money spent yearly in purchasing land has varied considerably. The average has been approximately £35,000 per annum. Owing to the large areas of land acquired during the last three years the money paid as compensation has greatly exceeded that of previous years.

There are areas of land owned, but not at present used, by the Railway Department. The question naturally arises, “Why is more land acquired than is actually required for immediate use?” There are several answers to this.

When forming railways the area to be taken is determined by a consideration of what is required to meet the existing demand, and an estimate of what will be required for future extensions. As the traffic increases, so will there be a demand for increased accommodation, and to provide for this extra accommodation additional land has to be taken.

Then when a line is being laid through the country, sometimes an owner will find that his land is cut in half, or perhaps a small portion is severed. The Department is then faced with a claim for compensation on account of the severance. Sometimes also the severed portion is acquired to avoid claims for damages.

Again there is the man with great foresight who knows of a piece of land which will supply the Department with ballast for many years to come. If it is generally considered that the proposition is sound the land will be purchased. There is also the case of river beds and valleys across which railway bridges are constructed. Greater areas of land are acquired than what are used for the actual bridges, and—as an explanation of what might appear to be excessive buying of land—it is only necessary to mention the importance of owning large areas on the upstream side of bridges. Owing to the ever changing courses of rivers and streams due to periodical floods endangering the safety of its bridges and embankments, the Department, by its ownership of such land, has power to divert water to safe channels and so combat this ever recurring menace. During most of the year these lands are available for grazing.

In hilly railed country the Department owns considerable portions of the hillsides; this is necessary to enable works to be undertaken on the land which will protect the railway tracks in the event of land slides.

A branch of work occupying attention is the purchasing of land for the erection of houses for railway employees. Areas sufficient to provide houses for a number of years have been purchased in some of the towns throughout the North Island, but only portions of these lands have as yet been built upon, the balance being leased for grazing and farming purposes until such time as it will be actually required.

Portions of land that will not be required in the future are sometimes sold, but the bulk of the Department's spare land is leased. In connection with the leasing of these lands it may be news to many that the Railways own free-hold land in the main streets of several towns in the Dominion. These towns have grown round railway stations. Where it was considered that the spare land originally acquired for station purposes was not likely to be required, it has been sub-divided into sites for business purposes and leased for long terms. In other cases lands are let on short term leases, readily terminable should the land be required for railway purposes.

When any person desires to lease a portion of Railway land and it is convenient and profitable to do so, a lease is arranged. Negotiations for the lease are generally carried out locally by the Department's officers and the matter is then submitted to the Land Office for approval and for the preparation, page 20 execution and registration of the deed of lease. The officered station nearest to where the land is situated is generally made the rent collecting station for the lease.

It has always been the policy of the Department to make its spare lands revenue producing, and the annexed figures indicate the success of this policy. As the amount collected has shown a steady increase from year to year periodical figures only have been shown in order to give an idea of the earning from lands.

Leases, and rentals of same, as at 31st March each year:—

The use to which spare portions of railway land are put by the Lessees are many and varied. The land is used as sites for stacking material, for agricultural purposes, in rare cases for residential purposes, as sites for business purposes, for the purposes of rights of way to adjoining land, etc.

Applications for easements on railway properties are also dealt with in the Land Office and deeds are prepared granting rights of laying all manner of pipes, subways, level crossings, tramways (both on railway land and across and under the track), drawing water from Railway supplies, and practically every kind of easement.

Transactions in which the Department is involved are the subject matter of many special agreements. These documents are also prepared in the Railway Land Office. The nature of such documents vary from an agreement respecting the control of a wharf, to one bearing on the combined use of a road and railway bridge.

Another item which engages attention is that of the transferring, sub-leasing and mortgaging of leased land and easements.

Fees (varying in regard to the nature of the document) are charged for the preparation of each deed of lease and easement and a fee is also charged whenever the Minister's consent is given to a transaction affecting the lease. On an average of the last few years the Department has received by way of revenue approximately £800 per annum per medium of these fees.

Diagram A gives some idea of the comprehensiveness of the plans known as the “Lease Plans” which are kept in the Railway Land Office. It is only necessary to study these plans to see what land has been leased (and in many cases for what purpose it has been leased) and also what different easements have been granted on any part of the Railway property in the Dominion.

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