A BIG SCHEME

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 31 July 1911, Page 4

A BIG SCHEME

A very bold private venture in land settlement has been undertaken in Tasmania. Subject to confirmation by the shareholders, a bargain has been concluded whereby Mr W. L. BaUi'ou (no doubt acting in conjunction with othe«-s7 has purchased all the land and asso^u or Van Dieman's Land Company. The object is to form a company for the cutting up of this land for closer settlement, and a scheme of emigration, from Great Britain will be part of the general plan. The area of the "land is 330,000 acres, so that it furnishes scope for operations which are without parallel in the private subdivision of land in Australia. As a single venture it is also of far greater size than anything which any State Government has attempted, though, in the aggregate, the states of the Commonwealth in recent years have repurchased for subdivision over 2,000,----000 acres, at a cost of nearly £7,000,000. Commenting on the transaction, the Australasian remarks that it will bo very interesting to watoih the progress of closer settlement under energetic business management, as compared wi'ii the performances of a State department. Many classes of land are, of course, to be found in an area of 330,000 acres, tut the assurance has often been g'.von that parts of "the V.D.L. country" are the (

best fattening country in Tasmania, so that plenty of room for settlement ought to be found. Private enterprise has accomplished an enormous amount of Jand settlement in Canada, but has not cftt-.n been tested on a large scale in Australia, though in Victoria cases have been known where its action was bolder than that of the Government.