EARLY LAND SPECULATORS.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11553, 14 February 1906, Page 4

EARLY LAND SPECULATORS.

Some early hss)i.or# b$ \he South Isl«n4>a&brvtf&tit ty light by Mr M.H.R., at tbe gathering of early settlers at Waikouaiti last week. He said when searching up early history records he found that the first whaling station in tbe South Island was established at Preservation Inlet in 1329 by Captain ! Williams, and that the whaling i fishery at Waikouiti extended item I 1&37 to 1843. The first whaling was carried on by Messrs Wright! and Lang, and the late Mr Jones was their successor. During the six years' whaling 448 tonsol oil were procured and 4J£ tons of bone were exported. The possibilities of j Waikouaiti district, as & field for; settlement, combined with sts natural beauties, did not esc&pe the observation of tho teutel-prising John Jones, and he acquired land and set atoo't the Brat efforts t6 settle the district. In connection with his claims for land he was finally awarded by Sir Oeorge Grey 2560 acres, for Which £4000 was paid. According to the Sydney records he claimed 1,880,000 acres in Otago. In those good old days the land nationalisers and single-taxers would have had a large field for their operations. John Jones, however, paid over £1 per acre for his Waikouiti land, and was modest in his demands,as compared with other landgrabbers. There was, for example, one enterprising speculator, whose modesty in land claims did not! exceed 7.000,000 acres, and as far as at present could be discovered £97 was the sum alleged to have been paid for this village allotment. His modesty, however, was exceeded by the^skelp" of country claimed by another speculator, who put in a claim for 20,000,000 acres. Summing up the position, he fonod that some five speculators laid claims for fourfifths of the land in the South Island.