TELEGRAMS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 143, 16 December 1908, Page 3

TELEGRAMS.

AUCKLAND EDUCATION BOARD'S ENDOWMENTS. SOME VALUABLE PROPERTIES. (.By Tbiegbai'H. — Special to The Post.] AUCKLAND, This Day. With a view to ascertaining the value and extent of certain of tho properties vested in tho Auckland Education Board, two of its members, Messrs. G. J. Garlaud and A. Harris, and one of the Education Commissioners, Mr. Johns, have just done a very extensive tour of the southern part oi tho district. The object of the visit was to ascertain what kind of country the board possessed since there were two or throe very large blocks which they had never received any accurato information about. A property of 18,000 acres of land on the Tokaroa Plains, 18 miles from Litchfield, was first visited. This land is contained in the watershed dividing the Thames and Waikato Rivers, and the streams which are found in the locality, and are full of trout, ultimately join the "Waihou. This portion of tho Education Board's endowments njeets with the approval of the commissioners, and they tound it to bo much more inviting than they had originally supposed, and in due course they expect this land to be leased. From this spou the party did a long overland trip right down to Napier, passing through Ahamuri and the Wairaki Valley, and from Taupo right down into the Hawkes Bay province. From Wairoa thpy proceeded to Frasertown, and there inspected several board properties close to Lake Waikaremoana, and embracing an area of s-averal thousands of acres. The quality of the land v*as gcod, though presenting a difficulty in keeping down scrub. From Frasartown the pdrty went round to Tiniroto, where there rt'ero several runs of 7000 acres to inspect. With th|se they were very well satisfied indeed. In the Poverty Bay district 59 board properties were inspected. Nearly all of 'these were found to ba valuable areas, including a number of suburban blocks of forty acres, which are occupied, and upon which the tenants aro making good progress. Tho rent paid forithest> properties, Mr. Garland explains, is rather lew, but it has to be realised thab when tiio tenants took up the sections Poverty liay land was not as valuable as it is now. The Poverty Bay district, in Mr. Garland's opinion, contains thousands of acres of the most fertile land in New Zealand, and he speaks highly of the possibilities of the district. The grazing mns owned near Gisborna by the board are all valuable propcriiee, and he expects that, they wil) do able to lay information before the board which will be of considerable assistance in making arrangements in regard to their endowments in tho future.