GOVERNMENT LAND SALE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9256, 4 December 1891, Page 2

GOVERNMENT LAND SALE.

If the demand for land can bo taken as a true indication of Taranaki's progress, and assuredly it must be, then wo are moving ahead, as an eager activity is now being displayed to acquiie land — Crown land especially. On Thursday morning last a ballot for some Crown land in the Huiroa and Ngaliinaru Blocks took place, and the "earth hunger" now prevailing was fully demonstrated on that occasion . Long before the hour for the ballot (11 o'clock) the majority of the applicants began to congregate in front of tho Government Buildings, and as the hour for the ballot drew nigh they wended their way upstairs to the Land Board Office. So great was the number of applicants present to witness the ballot that tho room in which the drawing was held (that in which the Land Board meo s) was too small to hold all of them, and several of them had to take their stand in the outer office. The competition for the land will bo best guaged by a perusal of the al oted list of sections published yesterday, in which it will bo seen that there were between 30 and 40 applicants for some of the sections. Such interest has not been manifested in a Crown land sale for years past, and tho Httle scene on Thursday reminded persons in a degree of the land sales of years ago. A striking contrast to the observant was furnished by this sale. There were the pakehas, mostly wiry looking young sons of toil, who were eager to obtain a section, to make a home for themselves ; and in striking contrast, sprawling about tho Government lawn, and louDging at the corners, were members of the Maori race (men, women, and children,^ who were attending tho Land Court, perhaps for tho purpose of fuithering tho disposal of their lands to the pakeha.