THE LATE SALE AT FAIRFIELD.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1930, 1 May 1880, Page 3

THE LATE SALE AT FAIRFIELD.

“ Ohispa,” in the “ Ashburton Herald," has the following on the late sale at Fairfield “ The land fever has again set in, and it is gratifying to Ohispa to notice that some of our most noteworthy residents, who have been in the habit of crying down what is termed ‘highland,’ have gone in a docker for the lightest of it at a tolerably heavy figure. I thought the late hard times would have led to very cautious dealings in fee simple, and I do not say for one moment that the purchasers have not been cautious, as they are about the knowingeet of our local land speculators, and have a very clear idea us to how much any acre of land in the county is worth as a spec. At the same time I can’t see how Fairfield land is going to give a grand return at the prices it was sold at. A purchaser of, say an acre block, has to pay say £3s—and a lot of them paid that figure, or gave paper as an equivalent—then he has to fence it, another £10; and he can’t live on it without water, which in that locality means £3O for a well; ao that without any provision for a house his acre costs him £75, and after obtaining it, what will he do with it ? I have asked my«olf the question several times since that sale, and I have not as yet solved the problem. Tho land won’t grow cabbages. One acre isn’t much account as a sheep run, and dairy farming is out of the question. One advantage in connection with the acre lots is their contiguity to the cemetery ; and as a consequence, burial expenses will be reduced to a minimum. But it is to be hoped the occupants of these ac~o lots will not attempt te defraud the Cemetery Board by digging their own graves on their own sections ; for, if they do, they will, on some of the sections, have a long job before them to excavate a grave deep enough to bury all the anathemas they will utter as to the nature of their purchases. I beg to offer a hint, in connection with the above sale to the Ashburton Borough Council, and I give the advice gratis. Let our City Fathers hire John Matson to blow about our rising township and its prospects. Hoist a few Union Jacks once a-week ; send Bullock’s cart and bell and another Union Jack around, and get John on the spout, and he would be cheap at a thousand a year, and my very dear friend, Mr Thomas, could do the business in such small villages as Leeston, Rangiora, or Christchurch, in the interests of the firm. “There’s no mistake about it, gentlemen ” (a favorite expression of J. M.’s). This auctioneer can wheedle bids out of folks who attend auction sales just to watch and see who are going to make fools of themselves, and who are going to buy things they don’t want. At the wind-up of the sale these watchers have to dive into the lowest depths of their own tr s pockets to pay up for listening to John Matson. I always reckoned him a smart man, but his sale of Fairfield surpasses all his previous efforts.