The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1916. A MILLING BUSH SALE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 50, 29 February 1916, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1916. A MILLING BUSH SALE.

(With which is incorporated The Tai bape Post and Waimarino News.)

It will I>e remembered that some months ago a large block of splendid bush land, containing some 734 acres, about a mil© from the Ohakune railway station, was privately sold, without competition, by the Government to a well-known prominent member of the Reform Party. We pointed out that this particular land had been previously open for selection and that it had been promised to the most successful applicants, whose names need not be repeated, they are both wellknown figures in Taihap© and in Ohakune. After these two men had been advised that they were the successful applicants, the Department closed down all negotiations and proceeded no farther. What took place in the meantime matters very little, but .sometime after everybody concerned was astonished to find that this land was in the possession of a J. G. Wil son Company and then hubbub Avas let loose. Accusations of jobbery were angrily floating in many quarters and, evidently, it was sufficiently serious for Parliament to take a hand. After some Members of Parliament had expressed themselves on the question the Government decided to take it, back from the J. G. Wilson Company and submit it through the Lands Department to public competition. The amount of timber on the land totals 13,303,500 super, feet, consisting main, ly of rimu and miro 11,239,700 feet, matai 1,773,800 and kahikatea 290,000 super feet.. This is equal to an average of .approximately, 20,000 feet ,per acre. The upset price Avas £7466, equal to about two shillings per 100 feet for matai, and one shilling per 100 feet for rimu and miro. The timber was, in addition, loaded Avith the cost of the railway siding giving access to the area. The land has a natural slope towards the railway siding rendering the cost of its working comparatively small. This milling bush was sold at public competition to Messrs Goldfinch and Co., Ohakune, for £14,500, being over £7OOO more than the Government was giving it privately to the Wilson Company for. Surely the result has amplified the correctness of the contentions of those who vigorously opposed the private sale of such valuable public property.