LAND IN THE NORTH ISLAND.

Feilding Star, Volume II, Issue 528, 23 March 1908, Page 4

LAND IN THE NORTH ISLAND.

♦ "EQUAL TO ANYTHING IN THE SOUTH." THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL'S OPINION. Christchurch, March 21. To a Post representative to-day, Hon. Dr. Findlay, alluding to a remark he made in his speech at Cheviot, said : "There is land in the North Island equal to anything in the South. One has only to compare the prices paid for land in Taranaki on the one coast, and near Hastings ,on the other, to see that land must be and is of the very highest quality. Judges in the Compensation Courts for the last few years have been stating that the prices given for land were absurdly high; yet the settlers who pant these prices have thrio«n. 1 am not prepared to state the relative fertility of the lands of the North and the South Island, but whilst there are very large areas of poor land in the North, there are also very large areas, especially of native land, excellent in quality and fit for crops, sheep or dairy farming, and the extent of it will only be definitely known when the Doomsday Book, which the Royal Commission is now really compiling, has been completed. I repeat what I have said before, that if I were a young man looking out for land for settlement, I should not turn my eyes to the settled land of the South Island, but to the yet unopened native lands of the North. A great deal of good native land lies in . what is known as the King Country, and will be served by the Main Trunk Railway and the roads from that line."