LAND SHARKS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 440, 12 April 1890, Page 2

LAND SHARKS.

The system of balloting for selections of land continues to excite feelings of disapprobation, on account of the abuses which have grown up in regard to the ballot. In the Wairarapa it Is said that

the owners of estates of 50,000 acres each are getting possession of sections of from 50 to 500 acres wherever they can get them, while the agents of English speculators are stationed in the district to ‘spot’ desirable plots of land. The Wanganui Herald, in the course of an article on land sharking, j makes the following remarks :—The practice of land-sharking or dummying the public lands has grown and is growing since the regulations were relaxed and the ballot introduced. The oracle is worked by means of one’s sisters and cousins and aunts, sons, and hangers-on, who put in applications and after a time transfer the sections. The practice is notorious, and though denials in particular instances are made and ought to be accepted, there is hardly a doubt that the knowing ones have all the advantage in what has become a business speculation. The law favors them, and they take advantage o it. The ballot has opened the doors to this kind of money making, and, while a liberal and excellent measure in itself, it has been degraded until we should not be surprised if an attempt were made to abolish the system and return to the auction or tender. The ballot requires to be most carefully guarded, or it is made the means of all kinds of jobbbery. It worked admirably under the k special settlement system, and could 'not be abused if residence before transfer were required. The public lands are now gambled for by men who never intend to do a day’s work on them, and who pocket the profits of their speculation out of the bona fide occupiers, who ought either to pay the full value to the State or get the benefit of the upset price. There has lately been a growing demand for land in consequence of the better prices obtained for wool and mutton, and hence the growth of a classs of land-sharks and speculators who find an opening in the trade to make money easily and rapidly.