AUCKLAND PROSPERITY

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14587, 25 January 1911, Page 5

AUCKLAND PROSPERITY

THE SOURCES OF WEALTH..

AGRICULTURAL EXPANSION.

MINES AND MANUFACTURES.

Sour of our Southern visitors whilst recognising the progress which Auckland is making, and admiring tho energy and enterprise of its people, have been acting the part of kindly Jeremiahs in warning us against tho dangers of booming and the terrors of over-valuation. No doubt these warnings have been given in the most friendly spirit, but have those people who gave thorn utterance carefully * examined the causes which are making the city of Auckland progress, and have they made any comparison between values here and values elsewhere?

Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., Mayor of Wellington, has been saying that Auckland is clearly in the throes of a land boom, and Mr. D. McLaren, M.P., says the method of apprising land at excessive values seems to have got hold of tho city and its surroundings. Both these gentlemen may, of course,'have encountered over-sanguine estate agents, or come across eome isolated case of undue exaggeration, but what do actual figures show? According to Government statistics, Greater Auckland, with a population of 86,440, and an area of 12,915 acres, is valued at £16,165,848. Wellington, with a population of 71,500, and an area of 9505 acres, is valued, at £17,627,216. It .docs not require much calculation to decide that values in Auckland must increase considerably before Auckland has the honour of equalling Wellington. '

Booming and over-valuation depend for their action very largely on borrowed money, and this is represented to a large extent. by mortgages. According to the latest New Zealand Official Year Book the amount of mortgages registered in the Auckland district is £2,479,468, and the amount of mortgages paid off £1,165,498. For the same period Wellington mortgages totalled £5,404,870, and the mortgages paid off amounted to £2,589,986. This does not look as if Auckland was depending too much on outside financial support.

Some time ago statistics were given re- ; garding the value per acre of all lands trans- ' lerred in the Dominion, and it was shown , that the average value of land changing hands in Wellington was three times greater than in Auckland, whilst Canterbury and other South Island districts surpassed even Wellington. Land values and prosperity are, under normal conditions, entirely dependent upon trade and industries, and in this matter it is interesting to note that according to official reports, the trade of Auckland has increased during the last decade by 180 per cent., Wellington by 160 per cent., Dirnedin by 37 per cent., and Lyttelton by 26 per cent, v This increase is represented by exports and imports. The exports from Auckland, according to official statistics, showed a yearly average between 1893 and 1897 of £1,363,157. In 1909 the year's exports irom Auckland totalled £3,064,716, and for the year just ended £3,550,427. The imports during about .• the same period k rose :,■ from £1,385,959 to £4,333,857. This ■preponderance of imports does not mean that Aucklanders are buying more than, .they sell, but that the city is a distributing centre, and her merchants are sending imported goods to other ", countries, and to other parts of the Dominion. , . - Plain commercial facts like these account for the prosperity of Auckland, and these facts, taken into conjunction "with the increase of population, have helped to increase .■ land values. In comparing the valuation of Auckland with that of Wellington, the population of Auckland was given as only • 86,440, but the official estimate of Auckland's population is now given at over 97,000, and it is stated that within a radius of 10 miles from the centre of Auckland there is a population of 136,000, the discrepancy in the estimates being due entirely to the difference in municipal boundaries. The population of the city is counterbalanced by the growth of the provincial population, which now reaches a-quartor of the Dominion's total; and is increasing at a more rapid rate than in any other district. But, after all, those who know Auckland need no official figures to demonstrate the soundness of its commercial position. To them it is plain that the prosperity of the place depends entirely upon the expansion of its many industries, and particularly of agriculture. Farming in Auckland during recent years has made enormous progress, and there is every indication that it will continue to increase still more rapidly in the future. _ This is duo to improved methods of agriculture, to the great development of dairying," and to tho introduction of farmers with capital and skill from, oilier districts. Auckland has now nearly 7,000,000 acres in occupation, out of the total provincial area of over 14,000,000 acres, or her land district area of 13,858,000 acres. Although the Northern province has about a million less acres occupied than Canterbury, and about 4,000,000 less acres than Otago and Southland, it has nearly i as many holdings as the three Southern provinces combined, and its wealth production per acre is avoragely greater than any part of the South. It has to be remembered that whilst, many parts of the North Island, and nearly every part of the South Island, possesses great areas of natural pastures on which stock can bo grazed, nearly every acre of grass in Auckland has had to be sown by man, and this fact, whilst it hampered settlement in the early days, means a higher stock-carrying capacity now;" and it is to the grassing and cropping of Auckland's occupied, and to be occupied, lauds that we may look for our expansion in agriculture, and even to our increase of city values, for there are a lew million acres of land already, occupied which have yet to be made productive, and there are several millions of acresmuch of it really good land— have yet to lie occupied. _ , Auckland does not depend for its prosperity entirely on farming, for it has many other established industries, and is remarkably rich in natural resources. Its gold mines and coal mines yield great annual revenues; its timber and gum and flax are still important sources of wealth, and its manufactures of cement and pottery, its shipbuilding, and numerous other works, provide profitable occupation for its people, and promise for future expansion. ' : '■■'.:- " LAND PRICES IN AUCKLAND.

COMPARISON WITH WELLINGTON

The statement by Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., and Mayor of Wellington, that Auckland is "in the throes \ of a land boom," is challenged by a land agent who is now in Auckland, bub who was in business in Wellington during the recent boom in that city. Mr. Wilford, in his interview with a Wellington reporter, expressed the hope that "Auckland will not feel the pinch as Wellington has done and suffer by being blind to (lie fact that land is selling at boom prices." The agent, who has had experience of both cities, however, declares that the present prices of land in Auckland do not nearly approach those ruling in Wellington during the boom, and that, moreover, they are a great deal less 1 than the presonb Wellington prices. -\ /' '.•■'■ "Take Island Bay, for instance," said theagent, ,in conversation with, a reporter yesterday. "During the boom, -land was being sold there for as much as £20 a' foot. At the present time similar land .jnaj:.-ba. pbta^d^^^akap^u^^abwi^^i^i

same distance from Auckland as Island Bay is from Wellington) from £2 to £5 a foot, or less than' one-fourth of the Wellington boom prices. Then,, again, hill sections at Northland, just outside Wellington, were selling from £15 to £20 a foot; compare this with land at Epsom, which may now be had from £4 to £5 a foot. Miramar is another instance of the high prices reached in Wellington. In the boom time prices thore went to about £20 a foot, and even now the rate is as high as £12 or £15. Any quantity of land a similar distance from Auckland city, say, at One-tree Hill, Onehnnga, or Takapuna, may bo had for £4 or £5 a foot. In Bemuera also I can offer excellent sections overlooking the racecourse, and near the tramline, at £4 10s a foot. If we take longer distances I can point to the Hulfc, where land during the boom went up to £20 and £25 a foot. The distance from Wellington about corresponds with Otahuhu and Auckland, and I need hardly point out that land at Otahuhu has not reached a-third of the amount mentioned.

"Generally speaking," the ex-Welling-tonian added, "I am well within the mark in saying that present prices in Auckland are not one-third of what they wore in Wellington during the boom. Another point is that the prices here are not increasing, but have been practically stationary for a long time. No, Ido not think there is any reason to talk about a boom with the present prices."