THE LATE LAND SALE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume I, Issue 92, 2 March 1881, Page 2

The late land sale will probably be the la*t held in this district for some little time to come, and it proved fruitful in surprises. No one anticipated that the demand f. >r deferred payment laud would be so much greater than that for the cash laud. It was known that there were a number of strangers iv the district looking at the land, and it was assumed that many of them were anxious to purchase lau-l on immediate as well as on deferred payment. However, the auction showed that whereas there were no less than 62 applicants for 18 sections of land on deferred payment, tuere were only some 16 or 17 purchasers present for twice the quautity of cash land. The average price paid by the deferred payment land buyers was fully double that paid by the cash purchasers, consequently the State would gain rather than lose by the transaction. It is true that some hours after the auction, there were several persons who were prepared to offer the upset price for some of the cash land, but the Commissioner was rot in a position to comply with their request to put the unsold: sections up to auction again. This would 6eem to show that the demand for the cash land was not quite exhausted, although in the auction room some of the land did not go off. It is probable that most of those who proposed to buy for cash might have been disappointed deferred payment applicants, wh^ only weut in for cash land because they were unable to secure the other. How keen the demand for the deferred payment land was, may be guaged from the fact that, after the auction was over, some 17 selectors applied for the four sections not previously selected.

The lesson taught by the recent sales throughout this part of the colony seems to be, that bush land will sell for deferred hub not readily for immediate

payments. In respect (o future handling of the unsold laml, tbe authorities mubt necessarily be guided to a great extent by the <-xp."rience of the success of the system in each district; by the urgency or otherwise of having the land recently offered, settled without delay ; by their decision in respect to the question whether, if tbe surveyed land be left unoccupied for a year or two, it may not be necessary to order a re-survey of the land, in order to render it saleable ; by deciding, in a word, first, whether it will be to the public advantage to push the land into the market; and secondly, whether ii will pay them to do so, and whether they can afford to do so or not. Tn respect to the Waimafce bush land, tlie arguments in favor of forcing on settlement as much as possible are incontestable ; the public exebeque will gain more than it. will lose by selling land on deferred payment at £2 12s 6d, instead of for cash at £1 10s. If the land be offered at once, the newly cut road and survey lines will not need to be re-cut, and there will be little or no extra cost of administration, in a district where the official machinery for working deferred payment land is all in full swing. There will also be more money available for road making, always an important item in bush country. So far as we can learn, the progress -payments in this district have hitherto been made with a fair degree of punctuality, but few forfeitures have been made, and tbe system generally may be pronounced a success. In the interests of the many disappointed selectors, whose loss of time und expense deserve some consideration, it would seem to be very advisable to throw at least half the unsold balance of cash land on the Waimate Plains open on deferred payment without delay.