THE KAIRANGA BLOCK.

Manawatu Times, Volume V, Issue 127, 23 March 1881, Page 2

THE K AIR ANG A BLOCK.

There is a notification m our columns to the effect tha 1 , applicitions wiU be received m Wellington for the unsold sec"tions m the"K»irariga,~ Fitzherb-rt, »nd Pahiatua Blocks. 'J'he lots are to be sold to cash purchasers, there being no sections set apart for deferred payments. This we very much regret, and we are only repeating what we have already written, and expres^ins; the opinions and feelings of many woul<l-be settler*, that the sections set aput far deferr d payment were ridiculously few. It was a general hope at the time of the sale that when the land was again thrown open f>r competition, there would be at any rate a few place! within reach nf the struggling but honafide set tit r. On refi-rence, however, to the advertisement we find that m the Kairanga Block there were m all twenty-two sections, twenty-one of these were to he sod on deferred payment, and fifty-one- or nearly three times the number — for cash. Those on the deferred payment were all taken up, or at any rate any which were not solH at the time, have since been applied for As we have stated, this left fifty^one section« sold for «ash, twenty-one of which were bought by Messrs Hurst and Manson leaving thirty, »nd out of that number the general public ouly bouojh,t sixteen. With such an experience, it certainly does seem st'ange that the Government should again risk a failure of the sale by offering them tor cash, and more particularly m the face of the fact that all the deferred payment sections have been taken up. Even looking at the matler from a £, a. d. view, by the course th^y have adapted the Government U moßt notably standing m. its qwn

light, for m onr report of the sale we proved b yond a doubt that the deferred payment sections niched a higher figure I.evond the upset price than the lo:s soil for cash. But we main' lin, as we have repeatedly done m these columns, that those who are but temporary guardians of the property of the state have no right whatever to recklessly part with its lands for /Merely pecuniary considerations, si) as "fc get. tnttn over the stile But above all, we think it will be fairly conceded that a large number of snv-dl settlers placed upon the land, is far mor • conducive to the wealth of a country, than a "few wealthy ones — for the reasons that the former increase population* and •+re consumers—as- -well- "-as— producers. There are man}' men with small me.ns that are struggling to get a place of tlv. ir o«n, and thi~, ccrtninly, is an excel lent chance; f>r if the Department persevere m their notified intention, there arc (he risks— Pit at, of their being no pu chafers ; and si condly, if there ar-, the; knd will pass into ihe hands" of capitalists, to bo transferred at some futu-e period to the struggling settler on "easy terms" at a considerable advance For those most potent reasons we sincerely trust that the Government will altei their intention, arid not commit what would prove a most palpable folly, if not injustice.