LAND ON DEFERRED PAYMENT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VIII, Issue 1396, 11 August 1881, Page 2

LAND ON DEFERRED PAYMENT

Crown Lands Department report "ffcr" the year states that since tueinftrdduction of the deferred payment system since 1872, 8925 persons who have selected 894,094, acres, of which 259,550 acres have been made freehold by fulfilment of conditions. Bttt for the deferred payment system, large proportions of this area would now be in sheep runs. The total area of Crown lands is now nearly 34,000,000 acres. Of this 9,000,000 are worthless for settlement, consisting of barren mountain plains and lakes. Of the 25,000,000 acres left, one-half is at present let on pastoral leases, and the greater part of the other half is under forest. The Secretary remarks . " Leaving the Otago runs out of consideration, and some similar open country in Canterbury and Southland, we have to look at the North Island as the place where settlement on the small farm scale of from 50 to 320 acres is likely to be most active during the next year or two. The settler in the North Island has much to contend with in the fern, bush, and swamp, but there is a kindliness in the climate that makes amend for much, and once the grass takes, the hard work is forgotten. It is a country that greatly wants opening, and there are many warm interior valleys where sub-tropical fruits would flourish, and where 11 large population might find a home, and livelihood on a comparatively small scale."