THE FLAXBOURNE ESTATE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIII, Issue 13783, 23 June 1905, Page 3

THE FLAXBOURNE ESTATE.

❖ EXAMINATION OP APPLICANTS. The Canterbury Land Board sat in Christchurch yesterday, for the purpose of examining applicants for sections on the Flaxbourne Estate. Over,sixty attended. Tho applicants, as is usual in such cases, embraced all classes, but the majority were 'young -and vigorous men, apparently well qualified to vindicate the national land settlement policy. The ordeal •of examination did not seem to be a very trying one, and the great majority of the applicants had little difficulty in convincing the Beard that they should be allowed to go to the ballot. Several women were heard first, and then, followed the men, in the sequence of tho numbers allotted them. In tho passages outside the Land Beard room the applicants gathered in little groups, and discussed the estate and their prospects with a ready frankness that was quite, free of any of the bitterness of rivalry. There seemed to be a general tendency to regard the whole affair as something in the nature of a gamble, and while a great many of the applicants desired to secure land on which to make a home, there wore some who had an eye to the chances of pocketing a substantial sum for goodwill after a short occupation. Alluring stories were told of men who had secured sections on Cheviot and Highfield and Waikakahi, and had been able to sell out at very handsome profits, but, on tho other hand, there were applicants whose desires were in the direction of yellow crops and flocks of fat and contented sheep. One or two of the men who belonged to this latter class were rather .inclined to resent the intrusion of the mere speculator. “ Why should they come in at ail? ” said one young fellow who had already failed in previous ballots for Crown settlements. “ The Government wants to get people on the land, and here are; a lot of us who want to get there. But if these chaps who are just going to wait for a rise and then sell out, get a section, they keep a good man out and then make him pay through the nose to get what ho should have had in the first place. The Government should not ailljow until say ten years have passed. Men who don’t want to settle down should not go in for leases-in-perpetuity, . and of course there would be nothing to stop a man throwing up his lease if he had to leave.” Quito a large proportion of the applicants had not seen the Flaxbourne Estate at all. They seemed to accept the Government surveys as quite trustworthy, and pointed out that' in any case a man oould not make sure of being able to pick his own section under tho grouping system. Amongst those who had visited the estate the consensus of opinion appeared to bo that a tenant would have little difficulty in making a living at the rentals fixed. “Some of the land is pretty dear, but there are one or two plums,” said an applicant who knew the estate. “ You can’t trust all the evidence that was given when the price was being fixed. Some of tho land that was said to have been surface-sown does not show much sign of it, hut then some of it is better than it was made out. I won’t grumble if I can get any section at all.” [Per Press Association.] BLENHEIM,_ July 22. For the seventy-six sections in the Flaxbourne Estate 890 applications were received at the Lands Office today. The amount of actual cash deposited by applicants was £5434, besides cheques and orders. It is understood that every section has been applied for. The applicants will bo examined before the Land Board tomorrow and on Saturday. Great interest is shown in the town regarding settlement, and it is expected that with tho authorised extension of tho railways to Flaxbourne considerable impetus .will be given to trade*