Page:Picturesque Dunedin.djvu/53

Rh facts and fiction, politics and polemics, are wondrously combined and displayed.

"Of the 2000 quarter-acre sections which comprise the town of Dunedin, 979 have up to date been selected. At the upset price of £12 10s, very few are now disposed of. So keen is the competition that £20 and up to £50 is often obtained. The business part of the town has of course all been selected, and no better idea could be given of the advance in the value of land, which but ten years ago was a valueless wilderness, than by stating the fact that sections which originally cost ten shillings were now worth £500 to £1000. Of course this refers to the business part only."

Vessels drawing fourteen feet of water could come within two miles of Dunedin jetty; the probability being that as the place progressed vessels of much larger tonnage would be brought up, a very small outlay only being needed to increase the depth to eighteen feet. The shipping interest of the town consisted of three fairly large brigs and half-a-dozen seagoing schooners, besides several smaller crafts. When several of them were at anchor in the bay, the appearance of the water presented an air of importance very gratifying to those who were the pioneers of the settlement.

In regard to the foregoing remark as to the status of the population being composed chiefly of "officials of Government," it may be explained that the Provincial Government soon after its advent had the Post Office and Custom House both removed from Port Chalmers, their original location, and established in Dunedin, where all the business was transacted. For the accommodation of the different branches of the service, the Provincial authorities erected a long stretch of one-storied buildings from the corner of Jetty-street down to what is now Liverpool-street, which were occupied by the Superintendent and Provincial Treasury, the Custom House, Post Office and Constabulary; but the sum total of the whole crowd of these officers did not tot up to the number of Justices of the Peace in the Province.

During the four years from 1853 to 1857, several other interesting events occurred in addition to those already ennumerated. A fair and market were established, or rather attempted; the fair intended to be half-yearly and the market