Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1885. A Railway Company’s Laud Sale.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XVIII, Issue 1678, 25 February 1885, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1885. A Railway Company’s Laud Sale.

Thk fact is noteworthy that the first sale of the lands allocated to the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company which took place at Wellington last Thursday, was, to a great extent, a failure. No less than 18,000 acres in the Fitzherberfc district were offered for sale, but the bids were few and languid, the result being that a sale which under other circumstances and conditions might have been a brilliant success, only realised a sum of £2051 I7s 6d. The sale had been extensively advertised in the Press all over the colony ; Mr T. K. Macdonald, the auctioneer appointed to carry out the arrangements, is known as a first class man 'in his line of business, whde the means he adopted to disseminate the fullest and moat accurate information concerning the lands to be offered for sale were perfect of their kind. Why then was the sale a failure ? The answer to this question is not far to seek. The top and bottom of the matter is, that the directors of the Wellington- Manawatu Railway Company were far too greedy and money grubbing, aud d id not offer by any means sufficiently liberal terms to the public. The terms of sale for the land were practically cash, and that is exactly what intending small settlers cannot afford to give. A man possessed of a bit of money who desires to go upon land, cannot usually afford to pay down the greater portion or the whole of the purchase money at once. He has to provide for building a small house, for fencing in some portion of the land ; for laying down some of it in grass or crop, aud for putting some stock upon it. If his payment for the land were a small sum down, aud the balance to he made up during a series of five years, he could thus spare the necessary money to go upon the laud and make the best use of it. These consideration have been recog nised by laud companies in the Middle Island, who in selling small holdings to intending settlers, have usually done so on a system of deferred payments, | extending over from six to ten years. The Government have also for one years past sold certain blocks of land on deferred payments, and more lately, Mr Ballance has introduced a system of small farm settlements on similar conditions, but of an exceptionally liberal nature, Knowing all this, it is a matter for the greatest surprise that lie directors of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Cjuipany should have asked the public to pay cash for the lands which they offered for sale, when so much better terms could lie obtained in other quarters. It is true that if land is offered cheap, plenty of speculators will be found ready enough to snap it up and pay cash for it, with the idea that they will, bv holding on for a bit, do very well when they come to re-sell their purchases, after the district has been more or less settled upon. But the prices placed upon the sections offered at the recent sale at Wellington were not low enough to attract speculators, so the latter would not purchase. Certainly, that latter fact will not be regarded as a misfortune by people who have the real interests of settlement at heart, It is not desirable that the lands along the railway line in the Manawatu district should fall into the hands ot speculators. If that railway line is ever to prove remunerative, it will only be by the district through which it passes becoming peopled with a large number of enterprising iudusfrmus settlers. The directors of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company have not gone the right way to work to secure 1

tlie jifc, lu-mcnt of the lands which have been allocated to them. They have been greedy for immediate cash returns, and niggardly in the terras which they offered to the public. The result has been that after expending a considerable sum of money to ensure the success of the sale referred to, it has turned out a terrible disappointment. There is only one course left open for the directors of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company to adopt. They should reconsider the position of affairs, and offer the lands which they have for sale on new and far more liberal terms. The sections for which cash is wanted should be offered at much lower upset prices than those previously fixed; while a considerable portion of the laud should be thrown open for selection by buyers on a system of deferred payments extending over a period of six years, with certain conditions imposed as to residence and improvements. It is highly desirable that the lands in this island should bo opened up for settlement, and that those who desire to go upon land should be afforded the opportunity of doing so on fairly liberal terms. The tendency of recent legislation has been to hold out such liberal terms to intending settlers. It is a pity that the directors of the Wellington and Manawatu Railway Company have not sufficiently recognised this fact, and acted upon it. If they had done so their first land sale would not have been so unsatisfactory in its results as it has proved.