HERIOT HUNDRED SALE.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 363, 18 February 1876, Page 3

HERIOT HUNDRED SALE.

| " This long-talked of and much opposed sale of land has at last been allowed to take place, and a miserable fiasco it has turned out to be. It is true about one-half of the land offered for sale was purchased, but who were the purchasers P All the land sold, with the exception of two sections, fell into the hands of the neighboring runholders. It is true there was sharp bidding for some of the sections, but the laud would have been sacrificed at even £<& to £5 an acre by going into the hands of those who have already a surfeit of it. The present system of land sales may be the means of bringing in an immediate revenue; but they are decidedly opposed in every respect to settlement. Had the same land been disposed of on deferred payments instead of going to swell the already broad acres of the capitalists, it would have given homes and occupation to forty or fifty families.—' luapeka Times.'

In"addition to our conterr.porarys remarks we may add that twenty-three out of thirty-one were sold, containing 4,955 acres, and realised a little over 325. per acre. Of these eighteen were sold at the upset price, and five reached a higher price, averaging 60s. 6d. per acre. This is raising money, but it is not settling the country.