MARAETAI LANDS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2716, 10 March 1916, Page 9

MARAETAI LANDS

THE PATRIOTIC SOCIETY'S SWEEP. It'will bo remembered that during the big Carnival organised -by tlie AVcllinnton Patriotic Socioty last year, Mr. John M'Master, of Pirinoa, Wairarapa, generously offered as a prize 4000 snares in tlio Maraetai Land Company,_ -whose block of valuable farm land is situated near Hamilton, in the Waikato. Owing to the flood of art -unions that were in progress everywhere, it was found impossible to bring off the Maraetai sweep successfully, but since the New Year a special effort has been made, and Mr. Joseph Lewis (secretary) states that the tickets are now going off rapidly in all parts of the Dominion, and there is every prospect of a very handsome sum being realised for the "Wounded Soldiers and Sailors' Fund. No less than £230 -was received hy the Secretary yesterday for tickets sold, and approximately £3000 is now in hand. Books of tickets are held all over the country and in every town, and those who wish to help our wounded by trying a venture for the big prize are reminded to lose no time in doing so, as the sale will cease on March 31. In the course of nn interesting article 011 the Maraetai land, the "Waikato Times" of February 20 says:—"lt is a curious fact that ' while _ twenty-four of the Maraetai sections have been taken up, not one of the new settlers is from Waikato, hut are all from outside districts—Otago, Canterbury, Manawatu, Wcstland, North Auckland, and Hawke's Bay. Four of tlie settlers with adjoining properties _ are getting their land ready for dairying next season. Why the settlers of Waikato continue to 'pay such enormous prices for land in their own district while an immense area of country with the brightest possibilities is allowed to go begging at their very doors is difficult to understand. When Mr. Hugh Campbell, of Hawke's Bay, was in Hamilton last November, lie was persuaded to look over Maraetai, and immediately closed 011 4000 acres. The southern men apparently realise t-lio potentialities of the country, and the invasion from the south that has set ill appears to have every prospect of continuing."