LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11888, 11 May 1899, Page 6

LAND FOR SETTLEMENT.

•ASf OFFER TO THE GOVERNMENT. [Peb Press Association.] • ' : AUCKLAND, May 10. It is stated that the trustees of the Mona- ■ Vale estate (27,000 acres), at Cambridge, fccaw offered the property to the Governmf«». to.be dealt with under the 'Land'for Settfamenis Act. Considerablfe interest is felt ro the question here, and a petition feotbe Gwenwr, circulated by the Mayor, fcM been very extensively signed. Practical fmnari say that tfhe price at which the aatace is offered will! practically ensure a settlement, seeing that 5000 acres in immediately available' for settlement, and -would realise £4 per aero, a sum suffiaeai to cover the whole of the purchase maoay. It,will, quite naturally, be objoetod "&■»• if the bargain is such a good fam it is not Ekely- that the estate wouM be offend to the Government. It appears, however, that the trustees are actable •to eat "up &e property, being bound by the conditions of the trust to sell it as a whole. Hence ti» offer of ttte estate to the Government. Last week Mr F. Lawry, M.H.8., made a careful inspection of the estate, and has sent, in his report to the Government. Mr Lawty is admittedly a good judge of pastoral conntry, and no doubt his report '■will htwe due influence with the Government and the Land Purchase Board. It is.Tmdersfcood that the report is of a most ta-voaraHe character, and that the drained BWjßmp hud is equal for dairy purposes to mytinng he has seen in the colony.