LAND OF LAND BOOMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18799, 28 August 1924, Page 14

LAND OF LAND BOOMS.

OIL AND REAL ESTATE. r HOW TO BUILD CITIES. Every town you sec in California, the land of land booms, writes Les Worrall m the Sydney Sun, seems to have fceen just dumped out of a mighty concrete mould. Here is the way the hustling Americans build a city. This plan is being followed identically in many hundreds of spots throughout California. In one of the large cities there is the announcement that oil has been discovered 100 miles away. Or perhaps some large estate is being broken up, or a live real estate man sees the possibility in. an ideally situated spot. Through the legal way the land is subdivided, and'out on the prairies the real estate office springs up. Advertising commences on an enormous scale through'the length and breadth of the United States, and land-hungry people come frpm everywhere to see the place. The promoters assume a princely mien. Their automobiles and agents are everywhere, urging people to see this wonderful spot before it is too late. A land boom is now in progress m the whole of Southern California, particularly in Los Angeles, wonder city of the United States by reason of climate, moving pictures and oil, and there are many thousands of real estate agents. The classified advertisements in the morning papers consume eight- solid pages. An the principal office quarters you have tickets lor free automobile rides, free lunches and freei entertainments thrust under your nose at every turn. It is amazing. _ The writer, warned in Sa n Francisco, took a week to look over Los Angeles before getting down to the business in hand. And he simply was the guest of a different real estate agent every day, being driven through the country in (fine motor-cars, given luncheon, and then told in a lecture about the beautiful country he was seeing,. Now the land is subdivided, graded. Perfect square blocks are formed; the streets are paved with concrete; water, gas and electricity are reticulated; automobile service stations erected, and options given to enterprising storemen. And all the while not a single home is built. Now come tho people, demanding homes, and while they demand, the homes are rising before their eyes. Parks are formed, planted; a newspaper is in the making. [ And gradually the modern perfect city j Tises, with the main street a blaze of j nightly colour. j