A Rich and Valuable Estate

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 41, 11 May 1927, Page 8

A Rich and Valuable Estate

FEILDING’S GRIEVANCE

WHAT THE STATE MISSED

(Special to THE SCW.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. ; Feilding still.has a grievance. Th er are those who cling tenaciodslv to ti, belief that injustice was done to tin district when the claims of Parorany the magnificent estate of SOO acre, and homestead of the late ErnesShort, the noted breeder, as a sin for the Agricultural College was over, looked during the initial inspects by professors of prospective localities. The Minister of Finance, the Hoc W. Downie Stewart, was to-day give,, the opportunity of viewing, unde: favourable conditions, the splendij grounds and palatial buildings whii were offered to the Government at a figure of approximately £75 an acre for rich, fertile land with poor land embracing a stony ridge adjacent, and with £50,000 worth of buildings prar. tically thrown in.

A casual visitor certainly wondered as he was motored up the long wind! ing drive, in which the late Mr. Short endeavoured to secure every orna! mental shrub in the universe, what could have turned the authorities against such an attractive and eaail; adaptable place. Perhaps the Minis, terial party, which was headed by Mr. J. G. Eliott, M.P., and Included Miss Downie Stewart, sister of the Minister, saw it at its best, for the autumn foliage displayed red and golden leaves in one maze of botanical splendour.

What could have attracted them more than the impromptu parade oi stud Hereford stock, similar specimens to those which have gained for Mr. Short and New Zealand such fame at the Panama Exposition and which gladdened the eye of the Argentine breeder? What more expressive illustration of the practical results obtainable in this locality could he imagined than the several pens of record-break-ing stud Romney rams, prototypes of the specimen, from the same farm, which fetched the record figure of 600 guineas recently? And what more impressive indication of the cheapness of the land as a State proposition could be produced than the sight of the Al. madale soldier settlement which wu sold by Mr. Short to the Government for the price of approximately £BO an acre in parts? Almadale nestles is the trees at the outer edge of the Parorangi property and from it no soldier settler has ever been forced to walk off. Mr. Eliott was so impressed witk the Romney sheep that he had to be reminded to vacate the pens and show the Minister round the garden. Mr. E. E. Short, who is one of the keenest Romney judges in the Dominion, is carrying on both Romney sheep and the Hereford cattle strains, which were so effectively established by the late Mr. Short during his long life in the district. The Minister and party were enter tained by Mrs. Short at the homestead and driven through the district.