A LAND PURCHASE

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 158, 29 March 1919, Page 8

A LAND PURCHASE

' IN THE WAIOTAPU DISTRICT. Information as to tho purchase by the Government of a considerable area of land in the interior of the North Island was given to a reporter yesterday by the Minister of Lands (the lion. D. 11. Guthrie). The Minister said that Cabinet had. approved of the purchase of a block of 13,000 acres of'laud, known as the "Reparoa" block, in the Waiotapu district. This block, he said, would be available for settlement by soldiers, it was good rich swamp land, situated 2a miles from Rotorua. It was well watered, every acre of it was .plotighable, it had been well drained, it was n'ready well grassed, and it was quite suitable for dairy farming. Judging by the experience of tho Department in other settlements on land not nearly so rich as this, the "Renaroa" block could be cut up into holdings of an area of 200 acres. The acquisition of '.his land, said the Minister, was the first important step towards the opening up of_ the vast* tracts of country which lay in the interior of the North Island, which were usually described as wimice land. The bulk ,of the 13.000 ecres in the block could not be called pumice land. It was rich flax-swamp land. Tho settlement would bo inland, end settlers must, therefore, expect to meot with extremes of climate, but as the altitude was from 800 to 1000 ft. only, there need be no fear as to climatic conditions.