LAND SALE AT TUAPEKA.

Evening Star, Issue 3426, 13 February 1874, Page 3

LAND SALE AT TUAPEKA.

{From the Times.) The sale of lands in block 3, Glenkenich district, took place in the Land Office, Lawrence. > early every seat in the Courthouse Was occupied by twelve o’clock, when Mr Hay, district Government auctioneer, opened the sale by offering section 1, which was knocked down to Captain Mackenzie at 8s an acre over the upset price of LI. It was remarked before the sale commenced that the captain intended going in big licks, as ho had filled his capacious wallet with Bank of New Zealand notes of all sorts and sizes, evidently prepared for stormy weather. The sale of the first section was the key-note to the competition which followed, as very few of the sections brought less than the first one, and many brought a great deal more. The bidding ranged from the upset price to L 5 Us an acre ; the latter sum and I 4 Is being obtained respectively for two smal l allotments. Of the 4,067 acres offered for sa'e about 3 450 were sold, at an average r{ about Ll 12s 6d per acre. The amount realized by the Government was 15,579 9s lid. The sale of land by public auction at the Lawrence District Land Office, on Tuesday, and two similar sales at which we were present years ago at Roxburgh, have convinced us beyond all doubt that the system of disposing of the Crown lands of this Province by auction is, so far as settling the country with an industrious population is concerned, ruinous in the extreme. At Roxburgh, the whole of the Island Block of 2 500 acres, and the whole of the Mount Benger Block of L9OO acres, with the exception of a few insignificant sections, were purchased by Mr Clark’s agent, and at the sale yesterday the 4,000 acre block, lately thrown open in the vicinity of Tapanui, was sold, we may- say m toto, to Captain Mackenzie, who was present at the sale with a bag stuffed with as many bank-notes as would have purchased all Tuapeka. Iho present system of disposing of the Crown lands may, for a time, serve the purpose of filling the coffers of the Treasury, but it will never bs the means of facilisettlement, although that is the ostensible object set forth by the Gevernment. The sooner the price of land disposed of by public auction is raised from Ll to L 5 an acre, and the sooner the deferred payment system is greatly extended, the better for the Province.