GOVERNMENT BUYS LAND

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 748, 22 August 1929, Page 1

GOVERNMENT BUYS LAND

UP TO £55 AN ACRE PAID FOR 14 PROPERTIES TWELVE HOLDINGS OCCUPIED (The SUN'S Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, Today. Since the Government came into office 14 properties have been purchased for closer settlement, says a return presented to the House at the request of Mr. A. W. Hall, Reform member for Hauraki, by the Minister of Lands, the Hon. G. W. Forbes. The price paid was £55 an acre for the Westella settlement, near Levin. The prices paid for the remaining 13 properties, details of the areas of which are not given in the return, varied from £ 6 5s to £ 50. The number of farmers now settled on these holdings was 12, but it was pointed out that delivery had only been taken of. The dates for possession of the others varied from September 20 next to June 30, 1930. Mr. Hall had asked how many persons had been displaced owing to the purchase of the properties, to which the reply was made that a possession of only one property had been taken the vendors were still -working the remainder. In the case of the Westella settlement the vendor retained the homestead, so that no persons had been actually displaced by reason of the purchase of the properties.