LAND APPLICATIONS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 321, 1 December 1888, Page 4

LAND APPLICATIONS.

Whenever there is more than one applicant for a section of Crown land, the law provides that the land will be allotted by ballot. It speaks volumes for the in" creased impetus that has been given to land settlement of late, that for several sections open for selection in the Auckland province there have been a very large number of applicants. This necessitated, a ballot being made, which was done this morning at the Crown Lands office, under the superintendence ot Mr Perfcy Smith, the Assistant Surveyor-General. A number of applicants were present and watched the balloting with eager interest. JPov section 1, block 10, Kaipara South district, there were 22 applicants, the upset price being £1 per acre. The section consisting of 117 acres fell to P. Kavanagh. 22 also applied for section 2, block 10, in the same district, consisting of 11 acres, at an upset price of 30s, and this fell to \V. Donovan. There were two applicants for section 3, consisting of 112 acres 1 rood, at an upset price of 10s per acre, and it is now the property of J. Kavanagh. For section 45, in the parish of Waipipi, consisting of 5 acres 1 rood 35 perches, there were five applicants, the price being £1 per acre, and T. Castle was the one successful. Three applied for section 53 in the parish of Kaiwaka, consisting of 81 acres 1 rood 29 poles at a price of 10s an acre, and J. Hastie proved successful. R. Ross was successful in the balloting for sections 45 and 50 in the same parish, there being only one other applicant. These totalled 36 acres, the price being 10s per acre. It is interesting to notice how, with the increased facilities given by the Government for land selection and settlement, there has been a great increase in land purchases. The returns for November are not yet made up, but so far there have been about 30 purchasers for very close on 5,000 acres. The returns for September show that there were 32 ordinary cash sales, amounting to £1,203, the ai'ea taken up being 344 acres. On the deferred payment system 180 acres were taken up by two purchasers atan annual rental of £12 17s each Fection. Twelve applicants obtained 1,144 acres on the perpetual lease system, the annual rental being £38 13s 3d for the lot. The returns for last month are much better, reading :—: — Ordinary cash sales, 73 purchasers for 4,830 acres, amounting to £3,455 ; deferred payment, 9 selectors for 1,061 acres, annual rental £72 16s ; perpetual lease, 22 selectors for 3,447 acres, annual rental £95. There is shortly to be an auction sale of town and rural lands that have been thrown open for selection.