SALE OF RUN LEASES.

Temuka Leader, Issue 4016, 26 February 1903, Page 4

SALE OF RUN LEASES.

The sale by public auction of ih o leases of a number of pastoral runs Jn oouth Canterbury was held at limaru on Tuesday last. There was an attendance of between 60 and 70 persons present, and the Chief Commissioner of Crown Lands, Mr T Humphries, conducted the sale. The conditions' of the sale were read and allowed that possession is to be »i----yen in March 1904, but the first halt year’s rent was to be paid on the fall of the hammer. At the close of the sale Mr Teschemaker pointed out that this was a hardship. Mr Humphries said the Land Board must have some hold upon the purchaser, and Mr Teschemaker replied that at least ho might be allowed interest on his money, for the idle year. Mr Humphries admitted that it was a hard condition, but there it was. The runs were put up in geographical order, commencing at the north. The following were disposed of, at the upset rentals, to the present occupiers, or to the wives of present occupiers No. S, Four Peaks, 10,300 acres, yearly rental £450, L. Walker No. 15, Sherwood Downs, 44,500 acres, £6OO, Co. lonial Real Property Company, per Jas. Smith ;No 208, , part of Ashwick, 15,700 acres, W. F. Hamilton : No. 209, part of Ashwick, 14,670 acres. £2lO, Mrs Hamilton ; No. 28, Mount Nessing, 15,000. acres, £425, Mrs E. Jones : No. 47, Otaio, 15,372 acres, £425, T. Teschemaker; No. 66, Waitahgi, 49,250 acres, £950, J. A. Sutton. The foregoing leases are for Id years, except Four Peaks, 10 years. The following were' passed, there being no bid for them : —No. 210, part of Mount Peel, 1170 acres, upset annual rental £IOO ; No. 41, Mount Nimrod, 14,000, £450;; No. 44, Blued iff.', 17,000 £425 ; No. 50, Mount Studholme, 6300 acres, £230 ; No. 61a, part of Hakataramea, No 61, 15,228 acres ditto, 9700 acres, £162 ; No. 64, ditto, 11,000 acres, £275. Two educational (Lincoln College) reserves, part of Hakateramea, No. 61, 15,228 acres, £SBO, and No. 62, 5400 acres, £IBO, offered on the same terms as the Crown lands, were also passed without a bid. At the close Mr Humphries said that if anyone had thought that by letting the sale pass they could apply for the runs afterwards they were in error. While they were all there he could put up again any run passed if requested to do so ; but if that opportunity were neglected the Board must give thirty days’ notice of another sale before they could be dealt with. No one accepted this invitation to ask for any run to be reoffered and the sale closed. The proceedings lasted just half an hour, most of the time being taken up with reading the conditions of sale. ‘ DUNEDIN, Feb. 24. At the sale of pastoral runs to-day, the bidding was not spirited. _ Two runs were passed in, and except in the case of three runs grouped in Waitaki, which brought £l2 above the upset, the six runs disposed of were let to the present occupants at the upset.