THEN AND NOW.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1165, 28 June 1911, Page 6

THEN AND NOW.

PRICE OF LAND IN WELLINGTON.

The Supreme Court; recently awarded (ho owners of a section of hind in Willis Street the sum of .£l-0(1 compensation for(lie loss of a ten foot strip off a section having a frontage of -I'll. Oin., which is at the rate ot nearly .UM per foot for land with a depth of only ten feel. Hour lime rings the changes! Turning to nil old Government Uaxette (Wellington l'roJ vinoe) dated February Hi, ISO.'i, there ij a _notice proclaiming the sale by miction of certain fuehsld lands in the city ot Wellington. What, is of particular ill. teres!, in view of tho recent compensation case, is the upset prices of city land# in those days. For instance, sections fronting Lambton Quay on tho new roclaimed land are set down as valued at •£l2 per foot, and two sections bavin? frontages to Harbour Street of 35ft. and 40ft. respectively were otfercd at; tho upset price, of ,£4. and .18 each; tho terms, "imnwdiate payment in cash of onetenth of the purchase money shall be tha condition of any such sales by auction, and the remaining nine-icnths must bo paid by the pmvhasev within one calendar month next after the time of such sale by auction, or tho one-tenth which has been deposited will be forfeited, and tho original contract for the sale of tho land will bo null and void."

Notice is also given in the same Gazette of a sale of Wellington lands to bs hold on February 25, 18G3, when quite a lot of what is now central Wellington, was offered for sale—39 sections in all, ranging from L'Oft. to Soft, frontage, and prices 'wore, slightly more equitable than appears in tho first instance. Here, however, were valuable cornel sections which are hot occupied by impressive structures, tho ground rent from which would mean a considerable fortune to pcoplo of moderate aspirations. For instance, a section with a 40ft. frontage to Customhouse Quay and 65ft. to Grey Street (now occupied by the Pier Hotel) was offered for sale at JC3O per foot on tho Customhouse Quay frontage (JE1200). A 40ft. section on the corner of Customhouse Quay and Hunter Street (the sito of the A.Jl.l'. building) was offered for •S2C ss. per foot (.£1050). Sections in Grcv Street with a depth of 100 ft. were offered at «£IT per foot, and in Hunter Street at from .£lO to JEIS per foot. Tli« histoiv of Wellington is the history ol any other city m the Dominion in. (hi! regard, and it must not he omitted from consideration that tho sovereign of to-daj lias hardly the rame value as it had fitly years ago, still the comparison in interesting.