THE LAND BOOM IN MELBOURNE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9164, 20 September 1888, Page 5

THE LAND BOOM IN MELBOURNE.

The Melbourne Argus publishes a half-page plan showing the allotments sold by public auction in the first land sale in Melbourne in 1837, with the names of the purchasers, the prices they paid, and the present value of the sections. The contrast in the figures is astounding, especially in the corner lots. The following are a few examples taken at> random : —Eighteen equal-sized allotments facing Collins-street were sold 51 years ago for prices ranging from £50 down to £18 each, and each allotment is now valued at £198,000. Among corner lots there is one at the junction of Elizabeth and Collinsstreets sold for £32, present value £49:5,500. Another corner allotment sold for £30 is now worth £300,000. In this last instance the money has doubled itself not quite 13£ times in the 51 years, or about once every four years. This, after all, is only 20 per cent, compound interest. Another point also comes out upon examination of the plan, namely, that the present values appear all to be "estimated." For instance, six sections are " estimated" worth £85,800 each; six sections, £118,800 each ; twelve sections, £99,000 each ; four corner lots facing each other, £198,000 each; and so on all through, presenting a marked difference to the original sale prices, which varied greatly even for adjoining allotments. The map gives an excellent idea of the wild speculation prevailing just now in marvellous Melbourne, and also a hint of the coming crash. It is not only at the present day that wildcat land gambling has prevailed in Victoria. As far back as 1842 a crisis arose from this cause. Sheep went down to Is 6d and cattle to 12s, and in a comparatively small community there were two hundred and eighty-two bankruptcies. When gold was discovered the old mania broke out again, and an account of it is given by Mr. William Howitt, who visited Melbourne in the fifties. He wrote then : — li It is amazing to what a price this peddling and wicked system has forced up land round Melbourne. We think £1000 or £2000 per acre near London high, but here it fetches from £4000 to £6000. Houses are frequently pointed out to me in the outskirts as having been recently sold with a garden for £10,000 or £12,000, which, in the finest suburb of London, would not fetch above £2000. . . . The landallotment mania bids fair to surpass what it was previous to the disastrous 184*2. It is amazing to hear of the property which lias been made here within a a few years ; and everyone says that no person who is active, industrious, and careful, can do otherwise than make a fortune in a short time if he will. ... I saw a gentleman yesterday on the other side of the Yarra, who told me that land there, two miles from the town, was selling at £700 per acre." The Argus, quoting the foregoing, says : —" By the end of 1854 it was clear that the yield of gold was steadily decreasing, and the values of land in .Melbourne, which had been built up largely on an assumption of a never-failing supply of gold, fell with a crash again, unci once more there was a period of ruin and disaster. Three years of extravagance were followed by a long period of poverty and repentance." Now tor a third time the Victorians are in the midst, or, rather we should say, near the end, of a land boom, and those New Zeulanders who are so eager to rush to Melbourne would do well to reflect on the inevitable " pcrio:! of poverty and repentance " which must follow every land boom.