LAND SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH CANTERBURY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3003, 4 October 1911, Page 10

LAND SETTLEMENT IN SOUTH CANTERBURY.

THE QUESTION OF PRICE. (Fbom Oub Own Cobbespondent.) WELLINGTON, September 28. Mr T. Buxton and tiho Hon. Mr Anstey to-day waited urx>n the Prime Minister regarding the acquisition of oertaiii private lands in South Canterbury for closer settlement.

Mr Buxton apologised for tiho absence of Mr Craigie and Sir William Steward in South Canterbury. There had, he said, been offered to the Government a nwmber of farms adjoining one another, and aggregating 5000 acres. The land was within 10 miles of the railway, and was offered at a fair price. The people were crying out for land. That was in South Canterbury. Then theire was the Four Peaks Estate, of 2000 acres of agricultural land and 15.000 acres of first-class grazing land. He had just ascertained that a private individual had made an offer for this estate at the same price at which it had been offered to the Government, and' that if the Government did not take the property there was a chance of its falling into the hands of the private purchaser. The land would be taken up readily by settlers, and he felt that it would not do to let these offers go past the Government. There was one other matter which he wished to bring before the notice of the Government. It was desirable fco have the ballot for the Sherwood Estate at Fairlie.«

The Hon. Mr Anstey said that most of the land could be obtained at a fair price, though in some cases he believed t!ha-t a pound or two an acre more than its value yr&s being asked. There was no doubt that in connection With a great deal of land offered for sale to the Government too high, a price was asked, but in these particular cases the excess was not so, great, and he had no doubt that Sir Joseph Ward would be able to get over the difficulty. There ■was certainly an enormous and an unsatisfied demand for land in South Canterbury. Sir Joseph Ward, in reply, said he would be very glad to look into the matter. One of the difficulties in the way of acquiring land for settlement was that some people wanted to sell at considerably beyond! the Government valuation —in some cases up to £lO an acre more. An effort had been made to try to extract from the Government a price beyond what the capacity of the land •would produce, and the consequence was that the Government had to change the system to enable lands to be acquired at a fair value, so that settlers could make a living and put something, away. He would ask the chairman of the Land Purchase Board to report on the land referred to ,by the deputation. In regard to , the ballot for the Sherwood land, he would inquire into that and give a reply later.