FIRST AUCTION OF LAND

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 94, 7 May 1937, Page 31 (Supplement)

FIRST AUCTION OF LAND

Township Seetions Average £56 an Acre » CAUSTIC NEWSPAPER COMMENT It is only 64 years ago. — so short a period as to be within the boyhood memory of men not yet by ahy means. ancient — since Francis Hicks, on July 8, 1873, offered at public auction a block of a hundred acres wbicb ultimately became tbe business centre of Hastings. The founding' of the town settlement on tbe present site of Hastings' had been planned nine years earlier, but - Mr. Hicks 's auctiorc sale was the first deeisive aetion that was taken. As is generally known, the name of Hastings commemorates Warren Hastings, as Napier, Clive, Meeanee, Havelock, Scinde, Outram and other town and street names commem--orate 'Englishmen famous in Indian history.

The land market in Hastings was lifeless for many years after the original purchase by the "Twelve Apostles ".of the freehold of the Heretaunga Plains from the natives. Six yeaT*s later Mr Thomas Tanner, one • of the original lessees of the area, who later formed the syndicate which purchased the area, made his famous offer of an acre of land in what is now the borough for every three acres ploughed. These terms really meant that he was offering land for £3 an acre as against the 30/- it cost him, and that he was taking payment by way of labour instead of in money. It must seem surprising to residents *of- the town in these days that there were very few acctqztors of the offer. In 1871 Mr Tanner made an attempt. to sell some of his holding at £5 an acre, but still it was difficult to find a market. Two years later, in 1873, Mr F. Hichs, one of the men who had accepted Mr Tanner 's offer of an acre for three acres ploughed, cut up an area of 100 acres into town lots, and they were offered at public auction. It was at that time, by the way, that the flrst proposal to carry a railway through Hastings was mooted. "A Mr Francis Hicks, it appears," said a newspaper of the ^ime, "having presented the Minister of Public Work3 with. a section of land on the Karamb Plains for a railway station, has deeided to lay off one hundred acres in the neighbourhood of the gift for a township toNe named Hastings. Our eontemporary is under ihe impression that it is not improbabie the proposed new township will eventually become tho capital of the province. Will somebody be good enough to lay off into another township another few waste acies in order that wo may have one moxe future rival of Napier?" Commenting later on the outcome of the auction, which was conducted by a Mr Lyndon (it is probably in 1 his honour that Lyndon road is Bo named), the same newspaper made the following comment: —

"The township of Hastings was disposed of by public auction by a Mr Lyndon when 144 seetions, comprising hearly 35 acres, were sold at prices which spoke well for. the quality of the land and the situation of the embryo city. The average price per acre was about £56, and the total sum realised over .£1900. The sale was not concluded by nightfall, and was postponed until the following day, when it was resumed at 2 p.m." The paper went on to.say: "Karaitana Tukumoana, for himBelf and other grantees, . disputes Mr Hick's title to the block of land that gentleman has laid off for the township of Hastings, and .which he is now offering for sale. We rofrain from making any comments, but all we can say is that if Mr Hicks's title is not good, by reason of the grantees of the land having complained of the legality of their own actions. before the Native Alienation Commission, then there is not a title to a property in the province without a flaw. .It may be taken as a curious circumstance that Karaitiana did not take the same 'courQe with Mr Hicks when that gentleman bought the land as he does now 'to intending purchasers of the block. from Mr Hicks." 1 The probable truth of the matter is that the native owners, seeing that, an increasing population and a growing commercial activity brought about by the T^hite man's" preaence had brought up the value of the land formerly owned by'fire natives, were jealous of the pakehas' ownership and repentant of their own action in selling. It appears, however, that nothing more was heard of Karaitiana 's protest apart from the faet that there was some mention of the faet that Karaitiana was believed to have considered founding a rival township at Pakowhai. In those days Taradale was aiready a thriving settlement and perhaps Karaitiana . became convinced that there was not room for two potential towns so close to eaeb •other.

There are still living a number .. of people who have a recollection of these very earliest days in the history of Hastings. The pioneers who bought these flrSt township seetions, though, had a firm belief in the destiny of Hastings as one of the most important provincial centres of the Dominion, and events have more than fulfflled their hopes. Now Hastings stands among the foremost towns of the Dominion in pace of growth. Its thriving importance, based npon the stable foundation of industry and commonsense administration, assures for it a future that should fulfil everything that Mi; Hicks hoped for it.