The Feilding Star. OROUA & KIWITEA COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1894. COLONISTS' LAND AND LOAN CORPORATION.

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 72, 19 September 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star. OROUA & KIWITEA COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1894. COLONISTS' LAND AND LOAN CORPORATION.

We are indebted to the courtesy of the j Feilding representative of the Colonists' Land and Loan Corporation, Mr Giesen, for a copy of the twenty-fifth annual report presented to a meeting of the shareholders, held in London, in July last. It is a most interesting document and we regret that we are unable to reproduce it in extenso, but we will quote a few paragraphs in order to show to our readers, many of whom are new to the settlement, what great deeds have been accomplished from comparatively small beginnings. The Chairman said " Twenty years ago this Company had less than £4000 of share capital paid up and no debentures." After giving an account of the mode in which the additional capital required was obtained, the Chairman said, "In those twenty-five years of our existence the first six were practically spent in building up our business, purchasing land, etc., and in nineteen years £GB,OOO had been paid | in dividends, while the whole of the share capital is actually invested over and above all liabilities." In order to provide for liabilities falling due in the year 1898, the Directors have already invested sufficient funds in securities easily realisable, besides having a liquid reserve fund of £12,000 invested in London, and a further reserve of £16,834 invested in New Zealand. This success has been attained by the Company having had the good luck to be represented in New Zealand by two men of the highest possible character and integrity — men who have had the interests of the shareholders at heart ; and who have performed their work most loyally. Alluding to the late Mr D. H. Macarthur, the Chairman said "He had always put our interests above his own." As to his successor (Mr Giesen) he spoke in the highest terms. Complimentary reference was also made to the valuer of the Corporation, Mr Pleasants, who came to the colony under the auspices of he Company. Further on the Chairman said " The value of land is one thing to-day and another to-morrow, especially in the colouies, where you have the land booms which put up land beyond all common-sense values, only to fall down again. It will be interesting to you to learn what the price of our own land has been. In 1875 our rural land sold at an average price of £2 5s per acre, in 1876 it was £2 11s per acre, and in 1877 it increased to £2 16s per acre. With regard to the town lands, the first record we have is iv 1876, when the amount it fetched was £25 per acre, in 1877 it rose to £29 per acre, and now it has increased to £160 per acre. However, I do not ask you to take £160 an acre as the amount we are likely to receive for it in the future, although I do not say that we are unlikely to receive it. We have 216 acres still on hand, all town and suburban land, which stand in the balance-sheet at only £1,335. I mention that for this reason : that while the town and suburban lands in 1883-84 sold at £31 17s 6d per acre, last year they sold at an average price of £60 38 an acre. Sir James Fergusson said that to General Feilding's (the originator of the settlement) skill and foresight was due the success of the Company. The utmost confidence was reposed in Mr Pearce, the New Zealand Director. The amount of money the Corporation has iuveßted in mortgages is £157,927, on securities valued at £295.971.