LAND SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 150, 27 June 1931, Page 7

LAND SETTLEMENT.

PURCHASE BY GOVERNMENT. BLOCK NEAR HASTINGS. (By Telegraph.—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The Minister of Lands, the Hon. E. A, Ransom, stated to-day that final arrangements had been made for offering for settlement the Pukekura block, neat Hastings, which was formerly included in the well-known Te Aute station farmed by Mr. C. Athol Williams. The opening of the block had been delayed pending the completion of drainage works which included the lowering of the level of the Poukawa Lake, to give sufficient fall for the main dredge cut, which passed through adjoining Crown land. "These works have been satisfactorily completed; with the result that a valuable area of swamp land eminently suitable for dairying is now available for settlement," Baid the Minister. The block, which is situated about two miles from the Opapa railway station and post office by a good road, comprises about 3165 acres, subdivided into nine holdings —three small sheep farms containing approximately 500 acres each, and six dairy farms, ranging from 84 to 146 acres in area. The rentals range from £77 to £95 a half-year in the case of the sheep farms, and from £31 to £64 in the case of the dairy farms. ' The general quality of the soil is good, the hills being of limestone formation and the flats, which border a large swamp area at the head of Poukawa Lake, contain for the most part heavy rich soil now well consolidated. The land ha« been grazed under sound farm management in the past, and the pasture has in no way suffered exhaustion by overstocking.