$596,000 for farm

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 6

$596,000 for farm

Nearly $600,000 was paid for a cropping, small seeds and fattening farm in MidCanterbury at an auction sale at Christchurch yesterday. The Balrazie property at Barrhill on the south bank of the Rakaia River, about 16km frojm Rakaia and 72km from Christchurch, is considered to be some of the most favoured country in

Canterbury. Of 194 ha (485 acres), it was offered on account of Balrazie Farm, Ltd, and Linden Farming Company, Ltd. It has been farmed by Mr O. E. Hooper and his son, Richard. The auctioneer, Mr W. H. Archdall, described it as “the bast property of its type in Mid-Canterbury” and “one of the better properties in Canterbury”,

In 1967, he said that according to a senior Minis-

try of Agriculture officer in the district it had grossed $l6O an acre, or a total of about $BO,OOO. Since the present owners have been on the farm it has produced barley and oat crops yielding more than 120 bushels to the acre, 85 bushels of wheat, 75 bushels of peas and five sacks of dressed white clover seed.

Apart from a 44-year-old weatherboard homestead, buildings on the farm include two cottages and a bulk grain shed with eight silos, two woolsheds, an implement shed, brick granary and two haybarns. It also carries about 800 ewes, and calves are fattened, but stock did not come into the sale.

The property was put up for sale on a “per acre” basis. Bidding started at $950 and rose by $5O bids to $l2OO, and then to $1225,

when Mr Archdall passed it in and adjourned the proceedings briefly for consultations with the prospective buyers.

The price finally agreed to was $1230 an acre — a total of $596,110.

The buyer was Mr M. D. Maw, who has been fanning an adjoining property in the district for the last 10 years. Mr Hooper and his son are the new owners of the Nandina standardbred stud at Pukekohe, which the Welsh supermarket magnate. Mr Albert Gubay, helped set up in 1971. They will take possession of Nandina on June 30. Mr Hooper said yesterday that he had bought a stallion in the United States which would be at the stud in time for this season after being in quarantine in England or Ireland.