EARTH HUNGER.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1709, 28 March 1913, Page 6

EARTH HUNGER.

OPENING UP HAUKAKI PLAINS. , (By .Telegraph.—Press Aeeooiatlon.) . ". Auckland, March 27. - There was a rush for the Hauraki .Plains-land- this morning. The Crown Lands Board , received 4257 applications :by 11)92 applicants for 112 sections. So grcat'-'was the.'crush that the board.ad-; journed to the Sailors' Mission Hall. Some 230 applicants were ruled ineligible l'or various reasons—mostly because married applicants take precedenco over single men. . •■*■'.

The .Hon, W. . F. Massey (Minister for Lands) stated yesterday that lie believed the Hauraki Plains block, mentioned above, to be the best piece of Crown land now remaining in the hands of the Government. "I saw. the block when I visited the-Hauraki Plains some months ago,"'added' Mr., Massey, "and I gave instructions .that it;'6hould be opened for settlement at tho earliest- possible date. It: is now being opened in compliance .with' my instructions. It is not only good land, but most of it has taken grass naturally, and is ready for stocking. The settler could go on to it one! day yitli. Bis' stock, and next: morning send liis.. milk,to the factory. I autici-'-patwT a'-riisli' for'these sections. "While, as: I say, this is probably the best land that-we have left, we have other laud within a few miles of this, which- will be opened for settlement within a very few months; and, as will have beeii'.noticed, blocks / aro being opened almost every day in different parts of -New' Zealand. For instance, thero'is'' another very important ballot going ,on to-day—the Otanemomo Block, in Otago. This latter was a block which we purchased under tho Land for Settlements Act just lately, and is '.good'land, fit for dairying, and I anticipate keen competition for the different sections."