TE WERA STATION

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16360, 7 June 1927, Page 4

TE WERA STATION

GOVERNMENT’S “WHITE ELEPHANT” ‘ ‘ rURCHASE UNJUSTIFIED. ’ ’ No better illustration of the folly of acquiring land for settlement can be provided t han Iho To Wera block, purchased lust year by the Government. This 10,000 acre station, situated iu the backblocks of Poverty Bay, let tho Government in for an expenditure of well over £60.000.

On paper, tho proposition no doubt looked quite an attractive one, but it is astonishing to think that those who wore supposed to know something of land values in the district, ever recommended its purchase. By the time purchase had been completed and the land sub-divided, the rentals asked were so high that when it came to be put to the ballot, there was not a single applicant. When we remember that there are to-day hundreds of men with moderate capital, only too anxious to acquire land under suitable terms, the fiasco becomes more apparent. The purchase could never be justified under any circumstances, and tho assertion of the Minister of Lauds that the property will pay in a few years’ time, is merely an apology for what has proved an exceedingly bad proposition. Had the land been entirely suitable for dairying, and for really close settlement, purchase might have been justified. The purchase will at least have shown the Government that it is hopeless to acquire second-class sheep country and expect to settle it these days, so something—if even of only a negative nature —will have been accomplished . —Xa pie r Tcleg raph.