THE STARK PURCHASE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1551, 2 September 1886, Page 1

THE STARK PURCHASE.

The Walrarapa Star thus refers to the now iolotioas Stark purchase, of which so much Has been heard of late: —A mao named 3t»r'< hs» a property on the North Shore, tucUaod, whioh he purchased four years ago 0' £1,500, and «nbf#iuent!y improve! at a coat 0f.£2100, mskiag £3,600 in all, Tais Wvair.ly tried to sell in March, 1884, for £3,500. B'errucately he had a partner named Alison, and between them the oraole is worked.. Just before the last assessment under the Property -tax Act, Stsrk’s partner makes a bosus offer of £I6OOO for the property, which, of course, Stark ref us i. The property-tax reviewer for the dia..Ho- i* found to be a partner in laud t ran*actions with Stark, and between them the property receives a fictitious value under the property tax assessment. It is then found that the land is required for defeno t pur; o es, and t he (Imminent gt to wo*k A'ter a little negotiation, the property for which 9 irk paid £3,600, and for which he was unable r, j tret £3 000, is sold to the Government for £17,000 ; Stark receives the money and quits the country ; and worse than all, a Parliamentary Committee white-waihas everybody. The whole transaction is a furl oonsuiraoy to defraud far -*orse than the offence for which the New T >rk Aldermen were recently sentenced to lor-g terms of imprisonment, yet Stark is allowed to leave the Colony and his fellow conspirators are at liberty. We venture to say that in any other universe the men mixed up in snob an infamous trans* ac ions would be prosecuted with the utmost rigour of the law as criminals of the most dangerous type. Bere we find the drunken soap grace who finds his way into another m m’s house and tt.aU a few shillings sea* ter.cod at the last Wellington criminal session to five years’ imprisonment, while the daring brigands of Aucklaod, who contrive by cutting their heads together to swindle, at the very least, £lO 000, from the Ux* payors of the colony, are exculpated and exonerated by a Parliamentary Committee.