I.—6c

10

be developed by the railway when constructed. And I will show later on that in the sales the company have made they have received a very considerable increase on that value. Now this land area reserved is partly in the Provincial District of Canterbury, Westland, Amuri, and Nelson. Approximately in Westland, 663,400 acres, of a waste-land value of £415,075; in Canterbury, 1,302,300 acres, of a waste-land value of £668,100; in the Amuri, 964,100 acres, at a waste-land vaiue of £482,050; in the Nelson District, 2,983,400 acres, of a waste-land value of £1,562,774. The company have, so far, selected the following lands : In Westland, 20,500 acres, of a B 1 value of £20,500 ; in Canterbury, they have selected 182,898 acres, of a B 1 value of £126,403 ; in the Amuri, 71,096 acres, of a B 1 value of £35,548; in Nelson they have selected 1,914 acres, of aBI value of £957. Or a total, out of the whole area of 5,000,000 odd acres, the company have selected 276,408 acres, of a total B 1 value of £183,408. Therefore there remains the corresponding balances available for selection in these different provinces. 8. Hon. Mr. Seddon.] What is the difference between the B 1 value and the amount received? —I will give you that later. Do you mean what is available for selection now, or what the company have sold ? 9. What it sold for ? The difference between the B 1 value and the amount got for it ?—lt comes out exactly as an increase of 35 per cent, over the B 1 value. We have sold land at aB 1 value of £134,638 for which we received £182,442. 10. Hon. J. Hall.] The difference between the two being?—-An increase of 35 per cent. 11. Mr. Wright.] What are we to understand by B 1 value?— What the Government value it at; the initial value—the contract value. 12. Mr. Tanner.] That is, 35 per cent, over the 10s. per acre ?—No, it is not all priced at 10s. per acre. Mr. G. Hutchison : There are differences. Hon. Mr. Seddon : There are some 10s., some 155., and some £1. 13. Mr. G. Hutchison.] The difference between the two amounts shows a profit of £47,804 ?— It equals 35 per cent. . 14. la that the gross amount received ? —Most of this land, I may say—at least a considerable amount of it—has been sold by public auction. Hitherto we have had no difficulty in selling, except in one or two instances where the land has been very light. There is some of this in Canterbury; there are certain blocks very light near Springfield, and we have some good lands under lease and still to lease; for instance, at Doctor's Hills. 15. You have some under lease? —Yes. 16. You had better mention that now, though I do not know it matters much. It does not give any criterion of the value of the land. Hon. Sir J. Hall: Except that it did not fetch the B 1 value. Mr. Wilson : I may mention that we have'one block which did not fetch the upset price. In the lease we have a purchasing clause, giving us the right of selling at £2 an acre, if the man purchases, which was the upset price at the sale. 17. Mr. G. Hutchison.] How does that compare with the Bl value?—£l more; it is just double. 18. Mr. Tanner.] Do you make the Bl price the upset price in selling ?—No. The reserves were put up, we saying, " This we think worth so much." That was what we did in this case. We said the land which came to us at 10s. per acre was worth £2 an acre. Some of it we sold. Half the land at Doctor's Hills we cut up into small blocks of 3,000 and 4,000 acres. We sold two of these blocks. The other we did not sell; it was rather worse in quality, and back country, and we could not get our upset price of £2 an acre. So we leased it, with the right to purchase at £2. 19. Hon. Sir J. Hall.] Which land was that?—At Doctor's Hills, North Canterbury. I would like to point out one thing : It has been said the company have picked out the eyes of the country. If you look at the map you will see what the company has taken ; it has not in any way picked out the eyes of the country, but only sold land for which there was then an immediate market. You will find in that list the blocks that have been taken, and that there are other blocks of higher waste-land values than those we have taken. There is one block there valued at waste-land value of 275. 6d. an acre. That is at Springfield, where it is all roaded, and the roads all merge on to the river ; there it stands, free and untouched. As a matter of course, we have been driven to take lands such as we could deal with for cash. It has not been a question of selecting either the most valuable land or that which will become most valuable. In fact, it was a case of selecting such land as we could deal with immediately for financial purposes. 20. Mr. Tanner.] That which sold readiest ? —Yes. 21. Is 275. 6d. the waste-land value attached to that particular piece of land?— Yes; we had negotiations with the Government to let them have it for settlement purposes on a small increase of value. It is all roaded and ready for settlement. But the negotiations fell through. That is some time ago. 22. Mr. Wright.] Would you indicate that block?—l will show it: it is just at Springfield [pointed out on map]. It is Block LX., valued at 275. 6d., or £10,725. There are a series of roads going in through this district; there is a bridge over the river gorge, and all these roads radiate there. I will now touch on the value of the Westland land. Last session you had evidence before you on the mining reserves. Many of the witnesses, I dare say you will remember, stated that a lot of that land was worth for timber £1, and for land another £1, after the timber was taken off. These were not witnesses for the company: they were somewhat against the company. Now we have at present an offer from sawmillers for an area of from 300 to 600 acres. The offer is to give us £2 an acre for the timber royalty, and 30s. for the land after the timber is cut off. That is a firm offer. We have another for over 1,500 acres of timber-land, at 50s. for the timber and the land. Some people say the land is not worth anything, and that the timber is worth nothing; but that is an utter mistake. When that country is opened up by the railway it will be found both timber