STAGGERED AND SHOCKED.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLVII, Issue 2776, 18 October 1923, Page 4

STAGGERED AND SHOCKED.

Like many other people better acquainted with the conditions and capabilities of the Dominion, Tvlr. P, h. Beveridge, a visitor from South Africa who has come to New Zealand with the intention of acquiring a small holding suitable for fruitgrowing or poultry rais ng, is astounded at the high prices of land in this country, “ 1 had been told that land was dear in New Zealand,” he said in the course of an interview, 11 but the prices 1 have been asked have absolutely staggered me. Coming from the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, where land can b'e had in close proximity to railway for 17/6 to £1 per acre, it is a shock to me to be asked fron* £7O to £IOO an acre for land here.” For land in the Hutt Valley Mr. Beveridge was asked £IOO an acre, at Levin an equally high price, and for mere sand dunes at Foxton £3O per acre. None of these seemed to him an encouraging proposition, and from what he had heard of Nelson the cost of getting produce to market from that district more than counterbalanced any advantages it had to offer. In his quandary he was turning his eyes toward the Oamaru district, where he had found tho town of Oamaru one of the cleanest and prettiest little places he had come across in tile course of his travels.