CHAP. I.J 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



11 



of the northern island, was put up for sale. The 

 mania for becoming suddenly rich by speculations in 

 town allotments spread like an epidemic through all 

 classes : some of the highest Government officers 

 were infected by it ; and, both before and after the 

 day of auction, nothing but land sales and land prices 

 were talked of. At the first sale only 116 allot- 

 ments were brought to the hammer, covering a sur- 

 face of 35 acres, 1 rod, 7 perches. Five rods and seven 

 perches had been previously chosen by Government 

 officers, who had that privilege ; the rest was bought 

 by persons who had time to resort to Auckland from 

 the Australian colonies, after three months' notice 

 in the Sydney Government Gazette, or from other 

 places in New Zealand. The whole realised the 

 sum of 21,499/. 9*., and thus the Government re- 

 ceived a sum which could be brought forward as a 

 sign of the prosperity of the colony, and of the great 

 value of land there : the truth, however, was, that a 

 few land-jobbers raised the price thus high, having 

 bought the ground in all the best situations. Not 

 because they were convinced that the land had that 

 value, but because they could sell it a few days after- 

 wards, parcelled out into diminutive pieces, to the 

 new emigrants, who daily arrived, and who required, 

 cost what it might, a piece of land to erect their 

 houses upon. By this the land-jobbers realized from 

 200 to 300 per cent. As no land for cultivation 

 was to be obtained, every one thought it best to 

 speculate in land, or to open public-houses, with 



