No one will dispute the fact that the potxulatiion of Welling ton will 1 increase in perhaps a greater ratio than in the past decade, and if there is scarcity of dwelling-places for the existing population, wliat will tlhe increase do for house-room ? The snread of poDulatdbn is bound to be in the direction of the suburbs and, therefore, it is stupid to say that far too much land is being placed on the market, and that there is a land boom. • • • Wellington reflects the prosperity of ttbe farming community, and in that re spect is a remarkably fine barometer. Who can deny thaifc the farmers are prosperous, and prosperous to a degree never known before. The mere enu meration of well-known facts will carry conviction to: the reader : — Wool is high, Mutton is selling aJt record prices, Beef is in the same position as mut ton, Butter is bringing better prices than last season, Cheese is higher than at any previous season, Tallow is bringing highly-payable prices, Hemp is keeping up well, Potatoes are making big money, Grains of all kinds are at higjh prices. • • * All the leading products ivre fetching really big prices, and the difficulty at the moment is to find the produce for wihich there are buyers everywhere. In addition to this, we have to remember tihat tihe gold production, of the colony is about £200,000 better than last year, and, 1901 was a record for more than thirty years. It is the substantial and unmistakable prosperity of the farming community that Wellington, reflects in its growing trade and increasing popu latfcion. And. toi> of all this, there is the expenditure of vast sums of miblic money during the next five years : also the expenditure by private firms and in dividuals in building operations. Growth, expansion, and improvement are to be noted on all sides, and, because some t>eople are shrewd enough to anti cipate the requirements of the popula tion of land for homes, there are others not in, it, who are ready enough to cry out "Land boom." * ♦ * It is simply ridiculous. The incontro vertible facts are there to upset the pre dictions and prognostications of the pessimists. 