SALE OF TOWN SITES ON THE GOLD FIELDS.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1241, 22 July 1872, Page 2

SALE OF TOWN SITES ON THE GOLD FIELDS.

[to the editor.] Sir— Mr Guinness, in addressing his constituents at the Ahaura, is reported in your columns on the 4th July instant, to have said — "Just before the Council was prorogued and at the hut moment the Provincial Secretary brought down a proposition that the Gold Fields Act should be altered or amended, so that the holdera of business sites would be permitted to purchase them at an upset price of LlO per section. This monstrous proposition would raise the price of land in the town to Ll3O per acre, at one bound: ~ He (Mr Guinness) suggested to the House that L4O per acre for land for business sites was as much as in common hohesty^it was right to demand for it, and he thought so now. There were .thirteen business sites in Ahaura to the acre, and Mr Greenfield proposed the upset price of each of those sections should be LlO. He (Mr Guinness) moved an amendment that the price be at the rate of L 43 per acre, which was carried. It was evident the object the' Provincial Secretary had in view was to gain time in delaying the sale of the land." As the above statement is, to say : ,the least of it, incorrect and disingenuous, I trust you will give me space in* your columns to state the facts correctly for the information of those who haq&been misled by Mr Guinness. ' 4 On the 12th of June, I gave notice that I should move next evening the following resolution :— "In the opinion of this Councils the Waste Lands Act should be amended so as to give power to the Waste ' Lands Board to sell occupied land within ships on proclaimed gold fields without the necessity of submitting such land to public competition, and that should such power be given the minimum price should not be less than LlO for the area comprised within a business site, viz., .forty perches (quarter of an acre). ■' This resolution I showed to Mr-Guin-ness and Mr Reid before placing it on the notice paper, and both approved of it. In moving the resolution I explained the object I had in view, viz., to enable occupiers to purchase their holdings without risk of being run up by speculators to a nigh price, which might be the case if the land were submitted to public auction as is necessary under the existing law, and that it would also do away with the necessity of a valuation of all the -buildings to be added to the upset price of the land. : : v -,l Mr Reid suggested that the words "at the rate of" should be inserted before the words " ten pounds'' in the resolution, which I at once agreed to. Mr Reid then moved that those words .should be*inserted, and his amendment was agreed to, I believe, without any opposition. The Provincial Solicitor moved a further amendment to the effect that persons Bhould not be allowed: to purchase until" they had been in occupation two years or erected buildings, and the. resolution was then passed as amended without a division. "' * Mr Guinness, never proposed any amendment at all, and that proposed' by Mr Reid does, not materially alter the original resolution, as if the minimum price ia fixed at not loss than LlO for a business Bite of forty perches, I fail to see that it is in any way improved by the words "not leas than at the rate of LlO for a business Bite of forty perches.

To have fixed the price at L4O per acre, it would have been necessary to have altered the resolution by fixing the maximum at the rate of not exceeding U0 for a business site of forty perches. In conclusion, I may Bay that I should not have thought it necessary to correct the statement made by Mr Guinness had he not been a member of the Provincial Couuoil, and must therefore have known that hw charges against me were unfounded, and the credit he has taken to himself undeserved. I am, &c., Alfred Greenfield. Nelson, July 11.