LAND PLAGUE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume XI, Issue 1272, 10 February 1883, Page 2

LAND PLAGUE.

TO THE EDITOR. Sib, —Your contemporary last evening calculated the presence of £31,000 loose cash amongst us on erroneous data, and seems to have done so knowingly. The 293 applications for the Patutahi small farms would indicate the possession of that sum by the applicants, were each application made by a different person; but the probability is that there were not actually more than between 30 and 40 distinct bidders. I have heaid that the affair was thus managed. Each land jobber put in for al! or many lots or got others to do so in his interest. The list will shew yon those with whom the dodec succeeded ; others, though in for all the lots, did not get one. The odds against the chance of the bona fide, occupier were very great. Dan Tole might have had at least £1,500 more by ordinary sa'e, and would have really benefitted the district. A scrutiny and exposure of the list would be useful and entertaining.—Yours, etc., Lotless. P S — These things are not of chance, see how Land Plague suggests its remedy in rhyme—Land League.