PATUMAHOE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 262, 27 March 1917, Page 4

PATUMAHOE.

Trade in real estate in the Patumahoe district has not heretofore been very brisk. This was probably due to the fact that owners were too well satisfied with their holdings to be anxious to deal, but evidences that go to show that the aforementioned state will be altered in the future are not now wanting. The recent revaluations made by the Government Valuation Department have brought it home to the holders that such high priced land should be more intensely cultivated and in order that such intense cultivation should be ensured the necessity of subdivision and of more owners to farm the land than the present limited holders is evident. The advent of the railway and the facilities afforded at the Fatumahoe station are causing many of the surrounding farmers to prepare for the production of potatoes and other root crops to an extent hitherto unthought of and with the increased valuation is no doubt responsible for the consideration being given to the holding of the land in smaller areas As evidence of the rise in values a section of an acre adjoining Mr Fleydell's blacksmith shop that sold some seven or eight years ago for £SO has just been bought by Mr J. Hooey, of Pukekohe, son of the previous vendor, for £2OO. It is also reported that a 60 acre section adjoining the railway station is about to be cut up into 10 acre allotments and to be offered to the public on easy terms. This 60 acre lot which comprises some of the best land in the district both for cropping and position, will no doubt be eagerly sought after. A feeling is also abroad, which will no doubt take tangible shape in the near future, that the time has arrived when the district should have saleyards to accommodate not only its own production of cattle and sheep, but the production of Waiau and the country stretching towards Karaka and Drury, of which Fatumahoe is the natural centre. We may therefore expect to see at an early date, regular sales established adjacent to the station at Fatumahoe.

In anticipation of the coming potato season and for the accommodation of other lines of produce the firm of Messrs P. Henry & Son, Patumahoe's pioneer storekeepers, are about to erect a commodious store on their property opposite the railway station. They are to install a weighbridge which will supply a very real want to producers either consigning their bulk goods by rail or settling on the spot.