A LARGE PURCHASE OF NATIVE LAND.

Evening Star, Issue 4092, 7 April 1876, Page 3

A LARGE PURCHASE OF NATIVE LAND.

The special correspondent of the ‘ Cross ’ sends the following Arrivals from the Thames Valley report that Mr Mackay has completed the purchase of about 236,000 acres in the Piako district. They report most highly of the Thames Valley. , There is a large quantity of land, fertile soil, and the Piako is available for small steamers for about eighty miles. For richness of land and beauty of scenery the Thames greatly excels the Waikato, and the river is an excellent highway for the whole country. Mr Mackay is engaged in arranging for the purchase of the whole block. It is a splendid block, and contains some of the finest laud iu New Zealand. It is reported that some persons in Auckland have set up claims to a large portion of this land, claims resting on transactions prior to the prohibitory proclamations. Great dissatisfaction on this is manifested in the Ohinemuri' district and at the Thames, and petitions will be circulated against al-

lowing the claims to slip from the public , ownership. I have learned that among the departed diggers by the s.s. Hero yesterday are twelve men who drew from the bank over L 4,000. Most of these would gladly have stayed, could they have had a chance of purchasing land and settling in the Thames Valley.