Land for Settlement.

Hastings Standard, Volume IV, Issue 12, 10 May 1899, Page 2

Land for Settlement.

IN AUCKLAND. (Per Press Assocation.) Auckland, May 9. It is stated that the trustees of the Monavale estate (17,000 bridge, have offered the the Government to under the Lands for Settlement Act. Considerable interest is felt in the question here, and a petition to the Government, circulated by the Mayor, is very extensively signed. Practical farmers say the price at which the estate is offered will practically ensure successful settlement, seeing 5000 acres are immediately available for settlement, and would realise £4. per acre, a sum sufficient to cover the whole purchase money. It will quite naturally be objected that if the bargain is such a good one, it is not likely that the estate would be offered to the Government. It appears, however, that the trustees are unable to cut up the property, being bound by conditions of trust to sell as a whole, hence the offer of the estate to the Government. Last week Mr F. Lawry, M.H.E., made a careful inspection of the estate, and has sent in his report to the Government. Mr Lawry is admittedly a good judge of pastoral country, and no doubt his report will have due influence with the Government and the Land Purchasing Board. It is understood the report is of the most favorable character, and that the drained swamp land was equal for dairy purposes to anything he has seen in the colony.