CLOSE SETTLEMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8237, 15 September 1906, Page 5

CLOSE SETTLEMENT.

LAND PURCHASE HOARD'S ' VISIT. SEVERAL PROPERTIES INSPECTED. Messrs A. Barron (chairman) and A. Re.es, memfcers of tho Land Purchase Board, have been inspecting properties iu the Mastertoa district during the past few days to determine their suitableness either for clos« settlement or for sections for workers' dwellings. Two days were spent looking over Mr J. Stuckey's property. Te Rangitumau, whioh comprises about 3,600 acres. Yesterday the members of the Board made an inspection of Mr A. Matthews' property of about 500 acres at Lansdowne. A cursory inspection was "also made, yesterday, of Mr J. A. Eanall's Solway Estate. Tho members of tho Board consider that the first-named property would, if purchased by th« Government, bo suitable for cutting up into email farms varying in area from 200 a<3re3 to 500 acres. The two latter properties were inspected with the objeot of seeing whether they were suitable for cutting up into seotions on whioh to erect workers' dwellings. Mr Barron, when interviewed by a Wairarapa Age reporter, last evening, was not inclined to divulge the result of tho Board's visits to the properties named, lie said that before any offers were made for the properties, or before the Board recommended the Government to purchase them, the properties would have to be valued by an expert valuer. To-day the Board will visit a native property of about 1,000 at Hastwells, and after that it is probable that the land aiound Dreyerton will occupy their attention. Mr Barron will then probably go Hawkes Bay.