THE "FLAXLANDS" SALE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 2631, 5 August 1908, Page 3

THE "FLAXLANDS" SALE.

Tho particulars in connection with tho sale of the Flaxla'nds Dairy-Farms, situated in a • triangle, bounded by Greytown, vMatarawa, and Daleficld, is interesting to . dairy 'far? : mers (writes our Wairarap'a correspondent), and also to landowners generally. Thoplaco was a 375-acro. farm,.last year—admittedly good river loamy 1 , soil, running to a depth of from seven to ten feet. As a fattening or dairy farm, those wlo wore supposed to know : anything abbut tho business expressed the opinion that the section was equal, to anyI thing, in the district. The drawback was that the farm was subject to floods from tho ; jWaiohine; River, and it requirpd protection -. in-the'shape of a stop-bank and river groirts. . Immediately after - tho Whangaimoana record ... land' sale; where the" prices averaged nearly : £30 an acre for land fifteen or twenty miles from the railway line, Flaxlands was snapped up ,as a,fastening paddock, at £25 per acre, improved to' a considerable extent, and then sold again at, £26 per' acre. - Last winter it' .saved the lives of;37o:,head of, cattle and 600 wether's,-.who ate it bare.; Then it'was sold again at about-£2B perjicre, subdivided; and again placed on tho-market. It was generally considered. by Wairarapa farmers that it would be impossible .to sell tlie • property, because ;it was alleged that there had been a slump in land values. ' The result of the sale surprised everybody. Four lots were - sold under the hammer, and tho, remaining two lots, changed owners'within ten minutes of the conclusion of the auction sale. The estate averaged £31 19s. 2d. por acre, the aggregate being £11,936. The previous . owner, who had subdivided, made the hand-, somo profit of' something over £2000. Foliowing are the now owners of : tho property ' and the prices paid by them:— 1 -. Lots 1 and 2 (102 acres). —Mr. G. Wiggins, Greytown, £30 per acre. y -Lot 3 (45 acres).—Mr: H. Meyrick,' Carterton, £33 per acre. Lot 4 (35 acres). —Mr. H. Morison, Mori-son'-Bush,. £32 per acre. - Lot 5 (65 acres). —Mr. H. Mori'son, Morison Bush, £31,105., per acre. - Lot 6 (128. acres, with homestead)! —Mr. J.-8.-Aueust, Daleficld, £33 per acre. : Total (375 acres).—Aggregate, £11,936.