THE BALLOT FOR SECTIONS.

Colonist, Volume XLIX, Issue 11974, 29 June 1907, Page 2

THE BALLOT FOR SECTIONS.

The ballot for sections of the Wangapeka estate took place yesterday morning at the Land Board Office in the presence of a considerable number of interested applicants and others. The estate which wad recently acquired by the GoVer nnient from the late Mr John Tinline, comprised some 6,167 acres, suitable for agricultural and grazing purposes. For the purposes of closer settlement tho land was cut up into seven subdivisions, comprising some sixteen sections, and there were altogether over forty applicants, the majority being from Canterbury and Ofcago, while there were alo several from the North Island, and one or two from the Nelson district. Before the ballot was taken the Commissioner of Crown Lands (Mr F. W. Flanagan) explained tho conditions upon which the lands were being thrown open for selection and said that the ballot was! an important event in the history of laud settlement in the Nelson District and augured well for tne development of the back country. The applicants, he said, had been examined by the Land Board, a» required by the' Act* ori the previous day, and some, for want of experience in agriculture and others on account of their inability to undertake the financial part ofjthe obligation, had been weeded out, but the applicants on the whole were a splendid class of settler. Many were from the South, and in a large measure the success of land settlement in the Wellington arid Auckland districts was due to southern men. Soiiie land was taken up in Wellington twenty years ago, and in Auckland, some thirteen years ago. These districts had gone ahead by leaps and bounds, and he believed that now that land in the Nelson district was available for selection and was becoming better known, this district would advance more rapidly than it had done in the past. He strongly advised thuss> who were unsuccessful at the ballot not to leave Nelson, and said that in Au gust some twenty"or thirty thousand acres in the Maruia district would be thro vn open; . After some further remarks, the Commiesioner said the Land Board intended to encourage the settler but would do all it could to keep down the land speculator. (Applause). The ballot was then proceeded with. Messrs Fergusson and Adams being appointed scrutineers, while the numbers were drawn by Mrs Cameron, the only lady present,. The sections T ivere disposed of as follows : —

ORDINARY FARMS. Sub-division 1, section 22 , block xi, 539 acres. M. J. Cdrrigan, Waimate, South Canterbury; nine approved applicants. Sub-division 2, section 17, block xi, 599 acres, D. -S. Hanger, Becks, Otago ; section 18, block xi, 347 acres, Angus McPherson, Pleasant Valley, Canterbury; four approved applicants. Sub-division 3: section 19, block xi, 344 acres, W. Wattie, Christchurch ; sections 21 and 29, block xv, grouped as one allotment, 449 acres, Mrs Bessie B. Cameron, Nelson ; g section 28, block xi, 243 acres, jtf. A. Hewitt, Ashburton, Canterbury; section 30, block xv, 138 acres, Charles Gray, Hawarden, Canterbury; eight approved applicants. Sub-division 4: section 20, block xv, 477 acres* W. A. Gainsford, The Peaks, Canterbury; section 27, block ix, 232 acres, Mrs Julia Hanger, Becks, Otago; section. 9, block xv, 98 acres, Mrs Beatrice Cameron, Nelson. Sub-division 5: seotion 7, block xi, 105 acres, Thomas Cocker, Porirua, Wellington, being the only aplicant, was granted the sectioD. Sub-division 6: section 32,b10ck xv, 14 acres H. B. Jane, Hope Saddle; section 33, block xv, 14 acros, Tracy McCarthy, jnr., Baton ; two approved applicants. Sub-division 7: section 10, block xi, 1959 acres, small grazing run, Miss Hogan, Cheviot ; three approved applicants. In sub-division 4 there are still two sections to be disposed of comprising 322 acres and 385 acres respectively, and an allotment of 105 acres subdivision 5 was no* taken up, but it is not anticipated any difficulty will be experienced in disposing of these section's.