LAND SETTLEMENT IN AUCKLAND.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14000, 5 September 1907, Page 7

LAND SETTLEMENT IN AUCKLAND.

(Fkou Our Own Correspondent.) • . AUCKLAND, September.4. During tho J month' of August therohag been abnormal activity' in Crown. landQ 1 settlement in tlio' province of. Auckland.' Tlio lan<l hunger is,, in fact, growing keenct 1 ' every clay, in spite of the efforts of tlif Crown Lands Board to meet the demand' At Monday's meeting of the board' 10! new selections, comprising 43,218 acres,, Vere confirmed. For tho preceding foul' weeks the schedules submitted showed'that there were 45 selectors of 35,235 -acres under the optional sy6tem of tho Land Act of 1892, and 63 selectors under tho Land for Settlements Act. Theso figures includo. both the /Waimana and Opotiki blocks, balloted for at Whakatane- and Opotiki, and also ordinary selections. spread over tlio wholo province. l Every section offered in AVhakatano and Opotiki was eagerly competed for,' as many as 392 applying for a singlo ecctiom In oho instanco the Tonadalo settlement at T« Aw.imutu, formerly the Church Mission Trust block, being a. town and suburban area, was not in such demand, although a considerable number of tlio sections were falcon- up. In order to keep pace with the demand the board is bringing forward largo areas for opening from time': tt> time. Schedules comprising over , 18,000 acres liavo already been passed for gazetting, arid a supplementary schedule of 4500 acres has since teen added. This does not, however, include tho To Akau lands in li.iglan County, which have been purchased under circumstances now familiar to the public, but tho To Akau land may be expected to bo thrown open in the \ near future. Notwithstading the fact that during August the Land Board hold special meetings at Auckland, Rotorua, Whakatane, Opotiki, and Te Awamutu, and dealt wtb a good deal of routine artd special work, the rush of applicants for examination at Monday's meeting in Auckland was so great iliai the meeting lasted from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Judging from the applications made for transfer of holdings at Opotiki and Whakatane, and tho consideration asked for tlio goodwill in most cases, it would seoni that there is quite a boom in land in that locality, and there is soma fear that tho values are being inflated. There aro still very largo numbers of eminently desirable settlers looking for land in Auckland province, and every day both city and country fee) moro anci mora, the urgent necessity that exists for tho / opening up to settlement of somo of tho vast areas of Nativo land now lying idle. .