AUCKLAND LAND ASSOCIATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume I, Issue 110, 21 March 1864, Page 4

AUCKLAND LAND ASSOCIATION

No. 0. We inadvertantlv omitted to send a reporter to j ihe meeting of the members of No. lj society, i which. was held on Friday evening in the Odd Fellows' .Mall, and extract lpun our I'lUeinporary. j \iie Crust, the report winch mo .republish i below. j The objects of this Society, as stated in the j rides published for the members of it. are " to j enable depositors by a small weekly subscription to secure the purchase of freehold 'and, which they may individually desire to acquin—but which unassisted by association, they might be unable to effect," to enable parties to pay oil'any mortgage, debt, or encumbrance upon their freehold. or leasehold property. or to build on. or otherwise improve, any freehold or leasehold property of which they may be possessed." The rapid growth of similar societies ar home is a good proof of Ihe boon they have •-■roved.to a large class of the community, and "he favour with which this Society has been received in this country, where, although nev, .the | ir.ud is not aii a drug—cloariy proclaims that it ! iiiled up a gap here which would have caused a i wan: to some whom litis Society now satisfies. ; •dany men who. ;is mechanic.-, may Vie actually i iCeiiing annually eiioniji in weekly payments, to enable them to buy a house or i;;ud. are yet un- ' able to accomplish their de>iiv. because they eannoc get suiiieient iti one >um to pay for it — and the seller will not take weekly payments, a t man. then, often become' im;>"es-.ed with the idea that if i> ;io u>e for hhn to attempt to improve his condition, and so gets reckless and extravagant, whereas, by means of a society of this nature, lie is enah'ed to pay his ten or twenty shillings per week, and may become entitled, the week after his tirst subscription, to draw the prize oi the lull amount that he is ultimately inlending to pay. "W itli this he may Imy his plot oi ground, or he may build himself a house on a piece of ground that is already bis, merely giving the Society a security on his outlay, for tile full payment of the monev advanced with •eight per cent per annum interest. Hi.- re pay - ment amounts, only, to regular weekly payment, tor a short time, of a smaller sum .than he would have to pay for the rent of another man's house or ground, and the interest he pavs for ihe money advanced to him is less than would be charged bv any business monev lender in Auckland. Moreover at certain stated periods there is an equal division of the aecumubued tines anil forieits of such members as have not duly tnltilled the conditions of ihe Society, amongst those who have regularly kept to all the requirements. And this will generally more than balance the charges f >r interest. Inis is the sixth Land Society that has been tounded. and each cine has met with a larger amount of success, and at the meeting held at the Odd 1-ellows Hall on Thursday evening, the Secretary reported that the number of shares iio\v allotted is 1,120. and of this number MIS have been taken tip already, and no doubt exists that the deposits due on the remainder will also be paid. In Knglaiul it. has been seen that many a working man whose beginning has been in investing his savings in a lund or .Building Society has become a rich man with a little exercise of discretion, and here there are tar larger fields for anticipation where land is given to springing from the Government price of lO.s. per acre as soon as a township is formed and is .successful, to twenty, forty, sixty, even to a hundred pounds a foot," as in'i>uceiiitreet. But though these prizes arc offered to some of the lucky ones by chance, it, is nut for the whole body ot shareholders to look upon the Society as n. gambling speculation, [t is founded with the intention ol enabling ("very steady man who is so disposed to heroine a holder of real property, to leave to his children, and by a few veal's little >el!-denial to tree himself from pavineut of rent to another person. One great advantage to be considered is that the shares are transferable property, and that in the event of a member dying intestate ihey devolve upon his nearest of kin, so that if in course uf the time of payment n man should die. all that has been previously paid will not be thrown away—but be something towards the benefit of ins widow or children. I nis is only one view of such a Society, viz. ; that in relation to a working member ; but there are other advantages which' would bear expatiating upon but to which we have not space to allude further, such as the redemption of mortgages upon estates with which the owner is not willing to part and which he would not otherwise be able to relieve from encumbrance. This appeals in behalf ot the Society to another class almost as wideperhaps as the former; to whom it may have been an inestimable boon Altogether, although some inay have perhaps mistrusted Land and Building Societies originally, their great assistance to certain classes is now generally recognised and in these days of doing everything oy Lhe great powers of Association no reason can be found why those powers should not be exerted to render non-capitalists landowners by the united power of the peace as well as the great ones ot the earth by their masses of wealth.