WAITOHI PEAKS

Southland Times, Issue 18846, 11 June 1920, Page 6

WAITOHI PEAKS

THE SOLDIERS' BALLOT. Till-; SUCCESSFUL APPLICANTS. (Per United Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH, June 10. The ballot for the Waitohi Peaks settlement for soldiers finished late to-night and resulted as follows ; Section 1, 1000 acres, N. H. Stokes (Malvern i; section 2, 024 acres, A. B. Wilkes I New Brighton); section 3, 1130 acres, E. ./. Mulligan (Christchurchl ; section 4, 220 acres. E. A. Robinson (Christchurch) ; section 5. 805 acres, C. W. McKeegan (Christchurch); section 0, S3S acres, 11. Vinch (Rukaia); section 7, 1132 acres, B. McK. Smith (Tiinann; section 8, 820 acres, S. J. Gibson (Ellesmere) ; section 9, 718 acres, E. A. Greenwood (Southbrook) ; section 10, 779 acres, J. J. Keman (Christchurch). Ollier ballots resulted:—Hornby settlements. 3 acres, .1. Vance (Lyttelton) ; Hornby settlement. 3 acres, J. Haiienday (Lyttelton) ; Aylesbury block, 252 acres, M. J. Walsh (Orari Gorge). MANY APPLICATIONS FOR FEW SECTIONS. (Special to the Times.) CHRISTCHURCH. June 10. Over 400 young men were waiting outside the Government Lands Office this morning when a notice was posted up stating that the ballot for the Waitohi Peaks settlement would not be held until 3 o’clock They talked for a while in groups, and then went their various ways. Most of them have spent the last year vainly looking for a suitable block of iamb Some have been on the trail for two years. To-night only seven of them will be able to retire to bed satisfied. The other 390 odd will have to be prepared to carry on. Waitohi Peaks, they say, is one of the l>est grazing settlements put up for soldiers in New Zealand and the successful applicants will find it fairly hard for a a start, but the results are expected to compensate for that. "If land values go down the men on Waitohi will be perfectly safe,” said a North Canterbury farmer discussing the financial side. "It is cheap land and can stand a slump. That explains the rush for sections.”

The rush for sections on Waitohi, however, means a heavy bill for the men concerned- It is calculated that Christchurch tradesmen will benefit to the extent of at least £IOOO by the presence of these landless ex-soldiers. Add to that the loss of wages and the railway fares, and the bill goes up another thousand or two. Four hundred men have stopped work for four days so that seven may get settled down. A Southland man calculated his land ballot expenses at £6O bedrock. He had been back two years, he said and he had been trying all the time to get a block but without any luck, not even a second marble. “If I don’t get anything on Waitohi I’ll chuck the game up for good,’’ was the comment of an applicant from Nelson way. “How about going back to the army?” suggested his mate.