VALEDICTORY TESTIMONIAL.

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 May 1906, Page 1

VALEDICTORY TESTIMONIAL.

[BY ELECTEIC TELEGEAPH.] [MB PRESS ASSOCIATION.] WELLINGTON, May 16. Mir Marchant (Under-Secretary for Lands and Surveyor-General), who is retiring from the public service on a pension, was to dtvV presented by the ActingPremier at a gathering at Bellamy's with a cheque for a substantial amount from the officers in the Lands Department all over the colony. _ Speeches eulogising Mr Marchant's services to the colony since 1865, were made by the Hon. Hall-Jones and Hon. T. Y. Duncan. The Minister for Lands said the boom ing of land had proved very injurious during the last few years. Wages had gone up, but the people were no better off, for tho land-booming syndicate wero taking the money. He wished they would, stop it. It would bo a good thing for the colony if they could bo cheeked, for wherever these syndicates got their hands on a place each boom that took place was worse than the preceding one. Land in Taranaki had been boomed up to £3O an acre. The land boomers in Wellington had boomed up land in the country as well, and the Government had to be very careful in regard to acquiring land for settlement.