LAND SPECULATION

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14263, 14 January 1920, Page 7

LAND SPECULATION

IN THE AUCKLAND DISTRICT. A Wellington business man who has just returned from a lengthy visit to the Wanganui, Hawke’s Bay, and Auckland districts, expressed to a New Zealand Times representative his astonishment at the enormous increase in the price of land, especially in some districts, in the Auckland province. “I do hope it will be allright for the purchaser,” he said; “but I am afraid it will take very hard work (which is good for all) and very high prices (which will mean increased cost of living) to enable the present tenants or owners to make a living. Tn some cases land has jumped from £lO to £35 per acre in five years. I know one man in the South Auckland district who purchased 200 acres of land in 1914 at £lO per acre. Certainly he worked hard on the land. Ho was a very capable farmer, and knew what cows to buy, what cows to cull, he understood milk-testing, (he use of milking plants, and how to grow and alternate crops. He has now sold his farm at £SO per acre, and an additional £IOOO for the 8-roomed house he had erected thereon. He has made a good-living since 1915. and now retires with a profit of £BOOO on the land alone, another profit on Hie house, and a substantial profit on Hie stock. Somebody must tie paying high prices for things when one man can make what to him is a small fortune in five short years.”