SOARING PRICES.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3380, 8 January 1920, Page 5

SOARING PRICES.

T “A SMALL FORTUNE IN FIVE ' YEARS.” I A Wellington business man who has just returned from a. lengthy visit to‘ the Wanganui, Hawke’s Bay, and Auckland districts, expressed to a New] Zealand Times representative his as-‘ tonishment at the ‘enormous increase in the price of land, especially in some districts in the Auckland province. “I hope it will be all right for the purchasers,” he said; “but I am afraid it will take very hard work] (which is good for all), and very high prices (which will mean increased cost of living) to enable the present owners or tenants to make a living. In some instances land has jumped from £lO to £55 ‘per acre in fiveyelars. “I know -one man in the South Auckland district who purchased 200 acres of land in 1914 at £lO per acre. Certainly he worked hard on the land. He was a very capable farmer, and knew what cows to buy, what cows ‘(O cull, he understood milk--testing, -the use of milking plants, and how to grow and alternate crops. He has now sold his farm at £SO per -acre, with an addi- H tional £IOOO for the eight-roomed House he had erected thereon. He has made a -good living since 1915, and now I retires with a profit of £Bopoo,o.n -the land alone, another profit on the house, I and a substantial profit on the stock, Somebody must be paying high prices for things when one Inan can make what to him is a small fortune in five short years.” l