The Company's Land Grants.

The area of country benefited by the construction of the line, and in which the Company may select its land grants, is shown on the map which accompanies the Company's exhibit of timber, &c.

This area contains a large extent of pastoral, and a fair quantity of agricultural had, besides very extensive tracks of valuable forests.

The forest land, which otherwise would be useless, will, with railway communication yield to the Company a large revenue from the timber, which is of splendid quality, and can easily be brought to market. There will also be a source of profit from royalties on coal and other minerals (other than gold and silver) which are already known to exist in large quantities in the district and the production of which will be promoted by the cheap and speedy means of transit which the railway will afford.

The policy of the Company with respect to its laud grants is to encourage settlement by selling the land in suitable blocks at fair market prices to bond fide settlers, and to this end a series of auction sales have been instituted at which the lots are [unclear: cked] down to the highest bidder, the terms of payment being extremely easy. The first of these sales took place recently and was a pronounced success—34 lots being sold out of 39 offered; realising a total of £18,955 for 16,154 acres, prices ranging from 18/-to 95/-per acre. The Company is also prepared to treat privately for the sale or lease of any of its lands, and also to grant licenses to sawmillers to [unclear: timber] on royalty. Full information to be had on application to the Christchurch effect of the Company.