A PRECIOUS SITE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13937, 20 December 1905, Page 5

A PRECIOUS SITE.

OFFERED AT AUCTION. Yesterday a spot, historical in Christchurch, familiarly known to ancient and modern inhabitants as “ Brice's corner” was offered at auction by the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company, Limited, acting for the trustees, of the wills of tho late F. J. Garrick and W. P. Cowlishaw. The precious land is merely a patch, a trifle of .half an aor-e, but lying at the heart of, the city, this earth, bearing -eight shops and a set of auction rooms, carried a reserve price of £70,000. There are people who can remember the time when the swamp lien or some such bird fluttered among flax at Brice’s Corner, and ' the worth of the marsh in those days could be figured iu shillings, without the aid of the integral calculus. But the shanty settlement ■ of those remote days progressed into the City of Christchurch, and Christchurch has advanced into Greater Christchurch. The auctioneer, Mr E. G. Staveley, announced that the section had a frontage of 165 ft to Colombo Street, and 132 ft to Hereford Street. In the twenty years, he added,, during which he had held an auctioneer’s license, he had never seen a more valuable or more important block of land, offered at auction. This event would prove “a milestone” in the march of progress by Greater Christchurch,” for “Brice’s Corner” had been a household word in the town for many years. The bidding commenced at £50,000, and the auctioneer, remarking that this was scarcely half the value of the. freehold, informed his hearers," a good gathering of 'gentlemen, that he would take advances of £SOOO. After some hesitation there was' a nod, and the next cry was “any advance on £55,000.” Thor© was silence in the auditorium. “I will take advances of £1000,” conceded the auctioneer, but tho £55,000 remained unaltered. Mr Staveley finally declared that tho property could not bo sold inside the reserve of £70,000, and dismissed prospective purchasers with a “ thank you, gentlemen.” ' •