THE WILDEN ESTATE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20942, 4 February 1930, Page 10

THE WILDEN ESTATE.

ACQUIRED BY THE GOVERNMENT .BALLOT TO BE HELD -IN APRIL. Messrs Dalgety and Co., Ltd,, report having sold on behalf of Mr It. ActonAdams his well-known Wilden property, consisting of 15,174 acres freehold and 8890 acres leasehold to the Government for subdivision. Surveyors are now at work on the property which will be thrown open to ballot early in April. There are few better known properties in Otago than Wilden which, under the capable superintendence of Dir ActonAdams and his manager, Mr G. R, Young, has attained fame for the quality of both the wool and the meat produced. At the price at which the Government has acquired the new’ settlement it should in every respect be successful, and many land seekers will be anxious to try their luck at the forthcoming ballot. Those who have the good fortune to _ secure sections, starting,in as they will at a time when stocking up will be lower in cost than for a number of years, should with prudent management never look back.

The ballot will be held before the clearing sale of stock and plant to enable tenants to have the opportunity of acquiring ewes and lambs from the carefully bred and closely selected flock which has made the name of Wilden famous not only in New Zealand but abroad. The property is at present carrying a stud Corriedale flock, and line bred Corriedales of an evenness and hardiness not found to the same extent in so large a flock elsewhere in Otago, and at the sale 18,000 grown sheep (mostly ewes, 9000 lambs, 350 cattle, 75 horses and a host of implements will be offered.

Wilden lies seven miles from Edievale and Heriot and contains thousands of acres which could not he improved on in the most favoured plains in the island. Mr Acton-Adams has spared no expense in keeping the property up to the highest pitch, and no place that the Government has bought is in better heart or more attractive and promising for the purpose for which it has been acquired.

Regret must be felt that a husbandman _ who has shown such, intense enthusiasm in breaking in virgin ground and bringing it to such a high state of fertility is'being lost to the province. Mr Acton-Adams is turning his energies to making a large area in Western Australia carry more stock than any local inhabitant dreamed it possible to do, and this all the reports from Western Australia indicate he has already succeeded in demonstrating. He has acquired Puijui station, of '636,000 acres, about 100 miles from Kalgoorlie, and in the short time since he took it over has discovered and developed abundance of stock water in many parts, assuring the carrying of a large flock under the very worst conditions, to the astonishment of many who consider it practically the centre of a droughtstricken area. The success attained by the Wilden Corriedale flock speaks volumes for Mr Acton-Adams's capabilities as a flock master. Large areas and the ability to stand the vicissitudes of markets are necessary adjuncts to developing flocks' of higher standard, but it is to be hoped that on the smaller areas into which Wilden will be subdivided the new tenants will maintain the tradition and that the name of Wilden will still remain famous for its wool and its mutton as a standing memorial to the ability of its late owner, who has well and truly laid the foundation for the settlement's success. The commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr N. C. Kensington) has advised the member for Central Otago (Mr W. A. Bodkin) that arrangements have been made to have the work of surveying the subdivision expedited.