MAROPIU.

Wairoa Bell, Volume IV, Issue 148, 3 June 1892, Page 2

MAROPIU.

[j'liOM OLE OWN CORRESPONDENT.I One necessarily feels surprised on reading the account of the recent sitting of the Court of Beriewers for the purprese of hearing objections to the valuation of property, at the comparatively few cases which were brought forward, considering the number who raised their voices in wrath orTrecoiving notice of the amount their property was assessed at. I know of several v ho considered the value set upon their places exorbitant, hut yet made no attempt to have it reduced. Whether -they were afraid that the Court would not give them aov relief, or whether after all they were not overvalued I do not profess to say. But it is evident that' there is a screw loose somewhere. One o'outlem'in informs me that some little time a»oAe 'purchased a block of land from the Government, valued If a Government surveyor for the sum of ten shillings an acre Not a hand has been laid to it since, yet i,e finds it valued by a Government (or County) valuator at one pound per acre, I mentioned this fact to ftO'vwho have taken up land around this district, and they stated that they had been treated likewise the upset price being just doubled. In some cases they had made improvements, hut as the valuator was never seen in the district, they are dumbfounded to know how he arrived at his conclusions In one case I wot of the amount of the purchase money was trebled, and the block was only a month or two bought. Now how in the name of all that’s wonderful did the valuator get his estimates without seeing the properties, pp residences, or whatever else he had to value. I nau.se for a reply. 1 q-j )0 p/ospe- ' UH of <iii! Kailm Valley Kauri Timber Company is ingenious if nothing else. After the number of Companies which have gone

to the wall of late, no doubt business men will he wary of investing capital on the strength of a plausible prospectus. I would advise anybody with a hundred pounds to invest, to pause before taking a share in the above named Company. Space will not permit to go into the whole details of the matter, but I will give an instance or two to show how misleading this prospectus is. The quantity of timber is put at ‘ the zerv Unv estimate oftwenty million feet' I have heard competent experts estimate that, self-samo block to contain at the most sixteen million feet. The gum land—in other words the noted Bluff Swamp—is reckoned to fetch £7 10s per acre minus the gum. Now common sense will not permit ns to swallow this. That anybody clothed and in their right mind would give £7 10s per acre for a block of land of questionable quality, and honey-combed with holes ten feet deep seems absurd. The other land is to he sold for the modest sum of 15s per acre, Lucky indeed if they get the half. The Kafia is to be extracted for ten pounds per ton. “Ye Saints and Ministers of grace protect us.’ What next? But surely nothing more need be said on this subject.