SPECULATION IN WELLINGTON.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12902, 13 February 1906, Page 6

SPECULATION IN WELLINGTON.

: lii an article in Ihe January V.umber »f Hfcp " Australian Accountant,. 1 ' Mr A. der.jß. > ; Barclay, -writing of Wellington progress, says" The spirit of sp&fcuTatipii has taken possession of the peopfe:'td£nnexten.t that is startling»when you eoinai to realise it suddenly. Tliat is why tlte land boom is what, it is just .now. _lt ia a bubble that is swelling too fast. and it will burst unless there is acheck. The price of land at . Island Bay cant go on lifting much above £ls a foot without a smash. The straightening of the Hutt railway justify £l6 a foot for land over at Petone. The land market is in a state of ridiculous flatulency that should be cured, because it is unhealthy. One man told me how he had made 600 per cent, in a land deal in twelve months. H-e was in the first Miramar syndicate. He pur in £3OO. . After Ave months he got ir back again, and at-tlie end of the year lifted another £IBOO clear profit. When news 1 -«f^4hßfcrJauA'-3af....business, -gets about it is not good. - It sets up a sort of inflammation in the public mind that leads to rash-

ness and false progress. At present land is changing hands in Wellington every day, ?nd men have been making money fast. Prices have gone up ridiculously, and the co6t of living lias become exorbitant-. Bu& the whole thing—or a great part of it—is paper dealing, and there is no bottom to it. Boys whose available capital, somewhere about- pay day, might be estimated in hundreds of sixpences are dealing in hundreds of pounds. Where will they be when ithe slump comes? A pretty shrewd man of business told me that he thought there would be a pinch before long, but that that pinch would seriously affect only a few holders—that it would not. be much diffused over the community as a whole. May be. But it seemed to me that the speculating mania was pretty gt-nerad, and that there would be a great many bnrnt fingers if the fire grew too hot. At- anyrate, the road to richness looks too easv just row to lie safs."