THE LAND MANIA IN MELBOURNE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1824, 25 April 1888, Page 3

THE LAND MANIA IN MELBOURNE

The Melbourne correspondent of the "Otago Daily Times " wrlteß :— The land speculation mania contlnuas m full force. Three yeara ngo it waa prophesied that It muet shortly end ; that the bottom would fall out of it ; that building societies would come down with a crash ; and that the deluded purchaser would be left lamonting. But bo far there is no sign of the end. Now that the nearat-hand suburbs aco exhausted, the speculator betakes himself further afield. In Whittleaea, for instance, which is 25 miles from Melbourne, out of the Hue of railway communication, and entirely beyond the surburban region, a large block of laud was said the other day for £65 an acre. At Christmas Bills, 35 miles away, 10C0 acres havo been sold for £12,000, and 000 acres of it are nothing but rooks and mountains. The tops of the Dandenong range?, over twenty miles away, are eagerly taken up at from £30 to £t0 an eoro. The idoa is to cut the fivma up into gflutlvmeii's rebldence blocks, for thesa hills avo fur b.-yond the ordinary township. lr. one day's "Argus" last week two salon of tho suburban blocks m the lump were reported, I will quote them for you: — ' Misars M'Kerzlg and Ballard n port having sold this day to Mr G O. Clauscon, r. b!< ok . f hind containing 947 acres at Thomiotown, tho next suburb to Preston, for £LOO ptr acre, tho total amount of sale belus £94.700. "Mr Walter Thompson, of Qaeen-atreefc, reports having sold, by ordor of the executors of the late Win, Hoffman, the estate of Essendon known as Butzbach, ooroprfsing 540a 3r 23p, at a satisfactory prioo, to Messru W. H. Oroker and George Howat." The satisfactory price m the latter case was over £80,000. So the game goes on merrily, The "syndicate." thit myatououß of the last few years, is abroad m all ita majesty. The small farmer, who solectod afc perhaps £1 an acre, stand* agtiast. He puts it all down to " these syndicate*," which apparently he concludes to bo some aoiontifio contrivance for the raising the price of mother earth to so much the foot instead of the acre.