LAND FOR CLOSE SETTLEMENT. AUCKLAND, May 9.

Otago Witness, Issue 2359, 11 May 1899, Page 34

LAND FOR CLOSE SETTLEMENT. AUCKLAND, May 9.

It is stated that the trustees of the Monovale estate (17,000 acres), Cambridge, have offered the property to the Government to^ be dealt with under the Land for Settlements Act. Considerable interest is felt in the question here, and a petition to the Government circulated by the mayor has been very extensively signed. Practical farmers say the price at which the estate is offered will practically ensure successful settlement, seeing that 5000 acres are immediately available for settlement and would realise £4 per acre, a sum sufficient to cover the whole purchase money. It will quite naturally be objected that if the bargain is such a good one it is not likely that the estate would be offered "to the Government. It appears, however, the trustees are unaole to cut up the property, being bound by the conditions of the trust to sell as a whole, hence the offer of the estate to the Government. Last week Mr F. Lawry, M.H.8., made a careful inspection of the estate and has sent in his report to the Government. Mr Lawry is admittedly a good judge of pastoral country, and no doubt his report will have due* influence with the Government and Land Purchase Board. It is understood the report is of a most favourable character, and states that the drained swamp land is equal for dairy purposes to anything he has seen in the colony.