TELEGRAMS. LAND IN AUCKLAND.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 20, 25 January 1911, Page 3

TELEGRAMS. LAND IN AUCKLAND.

IS THERE A BOOM? [BY TELEGHAPH — SPECIAL TO TH« POST.} AUCKLAND, This Day. The statement by Mr. T. M. Wilford, M-P.j Mayor of Wellington, that Auckland is "in) the throes of a land boom" is challenged by a, land agent who is now in Auckland, but who was in business in Wellington during the recent boom in. that city. Mr. Wilford, in his interview with an Evening Post reporter, expreesed the hope that "Auckland will not feel the pinch as Wellington has done, and suffer by being blind to the fact that land is selling at boom prices." The agent who has had experience of both cities, however, declares that the present prices of land in Auckland do mot nearly approach those ruling in Wellington during the boom, and that, moreover, they are a great deal less than the present Wellington prices. "Take Island Bay, for instance," said the agent, in conversation with a Herald reporter. "During the boom, land was being sold there for as much ac £20 a foot- At the present time, similar land may be obtained at Takapuna. (about- the same distance from Auckland as Island Bay is from Wellington) at from £2 to £5 a foot, or less than one-fourth the Wellington boom prices. Then, again, hill sections at Northland, just outside Wellington, were at from £15 to £20 a loot. Compare this with land at Epsom, which may now be had at from £4 to £5 a foot. Miramar is another instance of the high prices reached in Wellington in the boom time. Prices there went to about £20 a foot, and even now are as high as £12 or £15. Any quantity of Jand a similar distance distance from Auckland City— say, at One Tree Hill, Onehunga, or Takapuna — may be had for £4 or £5 a foot. In Remuera I can offer excellent sections overlooking tne racecourse aad near the tram line at £4 10s a foot. If we take longer distances, I can point to* the Hutt, where L»nd during the boom went up to £20 to £25 a ioot. The distaneer from Wellington about corresponds with that between Otahuhu and Auckland, and I need hardly point out that land at Otahuhu has not reached a third of the amount .mentioned." "Generally speaking," the ex-Welh*ng. tonian added, "I am well within ihe mark in. saying that present prices An Auckland axe not one-third of what they were in Wellington during the boom. Another point is that the prices her© are not increasing, but have been practically stationary for a long time. No, I do not think there is any reason totalk about a boom with the present wicce."