Syndicate Blocks.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6771, 7 September 1893, Page 4

Syndicate Blocks.

One of tho results of the late boom in Victoria was to divert hundreds of acres of land about Melbourne, which was being used as orchards and so forth, from its legitimate use. It was cut up on the map into what tho Argus calls "pocket handkerchief allotments," and members of syndicates who had purchased it by the acre dreamed of reaping large fortunes for themselves by selling it by the foot for residential purposes. But the sales never came off, or, if they did, the purchasers were not able to pay. The land, however, was effectually thrown out of cultivation, and now lies waste, while the supplies of milk, butter, fowls, fruit, and eggs, which it is still capable of furnishing to Melbourne, have to be obtained from a considerable distance. The Argus urges that tho sooner present holders resolve to '• cut tho loss " and sell it at a price which will enable it to be restored to its original uses the better it will be for the community as a whole. Where there were orchards before, it urges, there should be orchards again, or poultry farms or dairies. This is probably sound advice, but it will not be very palatable to those who bought the land at *' boom " prices, thinking to make their fortunes out of " pocket handkerchief allotments."