LAND SETTLEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 156, 26 March 1908, Page 9

LAND SETTLEMENT.

NORTH v SOUTH. . (BY TELEGRAPH—SPECIAL • : _ , Auckland, March 25 Speaking, at 'Wellington regarding tho • Culrerden.... Estate (Canterbury), to bo opened ; nndfer . -the .'Lands . for/.'Settlement ' Act ; next jnonth, tho . llou. R. M'Nab, Minister for Lands, .said interesting to noto that the,, most, acute: .demand, for land - seemed" to nave, shifted ,from, tho North to 1 tho'South Island, and in proof of that ho quoted tho 701 applications :for tho*.: Otekaike . Estate, -in Otago, and. tho appearance of. a phenomenal .demand, for Culverden, as against hardly an apphcant .for,. now settlement in. AucklandIhe ■ Minister'? howevor,. is (according,to tho " Herald ")-not borne out on Canterbury is, alroady .highly settlecl, .antl tho: Crown lands, availablo for selectioii there- amount to practically.nothing (says the. journal named), 1 while is pretty much .in the, same position:; :::Moreover, ■ CuiOtekaiko nro. improved lands, and ® areas,' that naturally'there would bo a big ; rush'for, sections.; it possible -.an equal, area under, the Lands \for bettlement-Act.at, sayj Tamahere.near Hamilton,>.m the. Waikatp, 'or, about Kaikoho;'' : in JNorth. Axickland,..the.rush for sections would without _doubt put Otekaike or Culverden ngures m .the. shade/ Then,yagain, thero,. is no steady opening of land going .oil in .Canterbury Otago, such as there is in AuclcJantl; , where largo areas of . Crown lands are being.thrown' open every, month., A week or two,ago, : ono.,of ,tho largest ballots held hero lor a long timo took place,: and there wero as many, applicants for; single sections.. .Another,big ballot takes plice shortly. nn i'nnh al ' p ptt \ S I clos P to-day on-1 (,000 acres, ; so that the, market is,beine to a certain/extent supplied; and if: the land Bettlemeiit. that, has 'taken place in Auckland years, during which. period the -Whakatane, and Opotiki , lands were 'opened, ; were reckoned 1 it would more than outclass .the .land Settlement; iu ■ Ota'go and Canterbury.;,put together, and probably be - o'-tho'whole South'lsland. AVhen .the Native lands are opened, thero will bo a rush of applications that, even .Culverden will;.not;.ber-able to 'look at; The Minister mentioned Reiyi- Settlement, but that was by no means a'; fair comparison. . ' RetH/landtf are very different from Culverden,and wero opened:;under. the new Land Act,;, with' its' sixty-six years' lease':, clause, ..and not under for ~ Settlement7,Act.', ' Inquiries, regarding . Rewi ..Estate yesterday snowed that'.the applications which wero received were' not by the Land isoard, .while the intending .stjttlers held that too high.. The -whole area of about; 2000 acreq ..was yesterday leased in' one: * o t.;;as a■ ..Swing • run, and, tile rental upon totals more than the combinedrentals would have been .if every section '■ had bosn taken up jinder the othor conditions.- Tho lease,- of .course, contains a'proviso that tho land is still available for .settlement, and any applicant cantako'up a section, and it thon. becomes .just ..a question of adjustment of tho rent pro rata'. ■ •