SALE OF DEPASTURING LEASES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume V, Issue 228, 24 March 1874, Page 6

SALE OF DEPASTURING LEASES.

mq '>Hi no Jifon vji m■■ • ■"• ; BTT a*. ! © r 'i The sale rung ,too|t place on ths jnajt'. ( /The,; attendance'(Was very large, so numerous, in fact,, that proceedings had to be adjourned to .the Queenstown Town Hall,! ► #he qompetitionwas very keen. The detail of the bidding would not interest our readerß» but; upon the attthorityrdf [ the Wakatip MdUj'thi "result was that the \runs brought an average annual rental of lid.* per acre. • * »<« ,««,?• -R v/j^'j^w*

The sale bt'BTha|lrunß withdrawn jrpra: the Tuapeka place in the Pistrie]; .Laiifi Qfhpe.pn iMonday.last,atiioon. The error comjnitte'dTby the? Provincial authorities in sending the conditions^'sale'applicS\ble t to the Wakatip runs; instead of those of 'Tuapeka, created* no'small degree of excitement and indignation among those' settlers, whose,cattle in the vicinity'of the land„that was advertised to : be leased ; and it was not until a public meeting toeonsider the matter was held at the Blue Spur, and a telegra'hi'was received from the Gold-fields Secretary, that their fears were allayed;.. The conditions of sale were ' noi ; received, till Saturday evening, leaving only a few hours for tlioae interested to wake themselves' acquainted with the stipulations made by the Government regarding the leases. There was a'good and the bidding Was very spirited, i There were* five dots p'ftfc Up, each at the upset rental of 'one half-penny an acre, the total acreage of the' five runs being 13,720 acres. The cotiditions tincter which this land is leased'are extremely liberal to both miners: and agriculturists,'as clause 6 shows, which;is as follows Each allotment will be sold subject to the right of any holder of. a miners'right, business license, or mining lease, to depasture free -of charge three head of great cattle thereon. '' The licensee of each allotment shall allow all persons ( at .present legally |depasturing, stock thereon one calendar month to remove such stock.. Each allotment will also be sold subject to the right of holders of miners' rights to enter and mine, upon the ; land contained therein, to take up residence' areas, ( .to cut and cart timber for mining; building, or domestic purposes, arid to take up agricultural or mining" leases therein under .any Regulations made under ,the Gold-fields Act, 1866, or any Act amending the same." The land ranges from' 1200 ft. to 3Jooft. above the level of the sea, and the prices given will open the eyes of some of our reader's to the enormous profits that must at present be realised from the cultivation of wool even on the snowy heights of the Lammerlaws. IOT ACREAGE PER ACRE PURCHASER 1 2380 'ls'lid /Thomas Hinde 2 3700 IsOid Samuel Henrv' ' 3 2190 ' Is 3d Stewart M'Comlie 4 2870 lOid D; J. M'Donald 5 2580 ~Bd Win*. Hayes 13,720 ■ ; • The total annual, revenue which will be paid to the Government for these 13,720 acres will therefore amount to £628 13s. 10d., or lid. an acre, the best paying runs, we have no hesitation in saying, that can be found, in the Province of Otago.— Tuapeka Times. ..>: ! ■■■• : .: •■■- "

Commenting on the above sale, the Bruce Herald of last week writes :—" Our Tuapeka telegram will, we have no doubt, awaken many to a sense of the shameless manner in which the. legislators played into the hands of the runholders by granting them extended leases, and the utter absurdity of the arguments used by those who point to the assessment received from runs sis a a reason for not taking laud for settlement. 13,000 acres on Tuapeka Commonage, in five lots, leased for.seven years at an average of lOd. per acre. There are in hands of runholders some 6,400,000 acres in rounl numbers, which at lOd per acre would yield a rental of £266,666 13s. 4d., instead of the paltry sum of fifty or sixty thousand at present yielded. With such a revenue from our pastoral lands under a leasing system, there would be no need for selling blocks to large landed proprietors, or sacrificing the people's patrimony. Again, were these runs cut up into 2,600 acre blocks, it would open up settlement for between two and three thousand sheepfarmers, instefcd of being in the hands of two or three runholders, at present many of them absentees. How long will people remain blindfolded ?" ■.•■'