HAURAKI PLAINS GAMBLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 28 March 1913, Page 4

HAURAKI PLAINS GAMBLE.

Tdie fact that 4257 applications were received for 112 .sections of Grown Lands on the Hauraki Plains, may lead some people to suppose that the earth hunger fin the Dominion is terrible. Wluen the truth is known, however, it will be found that two 'thirds of the applicants for this land lmvp jjeej} induced to go to the ballot purely and simply from a spirit of gamble. It an open secret that land in the neighbourhood of that which is .being offered has recently changed hands at double, perhaps treble the price that is being asked by the Government. In other words, the man who is forfeutnate enough to draw a section in the Hauraki Plains gamble may have hundreds, nay thousands of pounds of unearned increment placed directly into ibis. pocket. We cannot conceive how the Government can permit po much of the increment to go into the pockets of private individuals. Either the valuers, or .the Land Board, or somebody i.s to blame. We need no evidence to convince us that the State is offering the land at a ridiculously low price. The rujsh of applicants speaks for itself.