The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1860-04-11
For the Grand Haven News.
Our Present.


view. and what is the most feasible course
to be adopted for the resuscitation of bu-
siness and for the promotion Of better
times in our midst.
Let us look about us for moment:
And to commence direct at home, l have
been for long time convinced that the
almost insuperable barrier to our pros
perity, as village, consists in the unwill-
inrness of nonresident owners of build
ing lots to part with them for any other
than exorbitant prices; so much so, in
deed, that inquirers for village property
turn away with contemptuous sheer
from terms proposed, and with the graf
ing exclamation " l can do better at 9th
err places!" and thus capitalists, artizans,
mechanics and enterprizing men generally
are driven away and compelled to seek
more favorable auspices under which. TO
set up business.
No policy can be more absurd, nor idea
more fallacious than that exorbitant
prices must be demanded for village lots
because the same are most favorably To-
Gated for business operations. Far better
for nonresident land owners (who are to
q great extent holders of our village lots)
TO dispose of them at half their true val
ue even, and encourage enterprise and the
introduction of capital, than thus to keep
out all who seek ingress for laudable pur-
poses; for in few years the property
that might remain to them would, by
such liberal policy, be increased TO ten
fold its present real value and command
n ready sale. And We forewarn gentle
men holding village lots that unless they
do adopt some more liberal policy than
heretofore practiced in their sale, such
lands will greatly depreciate in value, and
the prospect of making "bargains" van
ished far away.
Again, the lumber on our pine lands is
rapidly vanishiDg-our steam mills are
stopped for want of encouragement, and
we must go into something else, as our
trade from that, source is rapidly dimin-
shing. Our working men are gaining at
best but precarious living by OCCASION
. ally loading vessels land that merely from
hand to mouth) during the season Of nav
9 igation-our most valuable farming lands
nearare owned by non-residents who with
hold them from sale preventing their oc-
g cupancy by our hardy and enterprising
yeomanry.
Again, it is widely known that we have
at hand the finest oak timber for ship
! building, that there is an abundance of all
kinds of hardwood, hemlock, pine, &C.,
that large amount of capital could be
proftably invested in the erection of tan
neres, pail and tub factories, manufacto-
!, res of furniture in the rough, cooperage
: in all its Branches grist mill here and
: there in n short time could be made to
t pay, and these in turn, would introduce
> many other trades in our midst.
> Our fisheries have languished the past
9 two years because our fishermen had not
the means TO carry them on successfully,
D and have fallen of from 100000, in 1S-
81, TO $4,000 for SO and 80, so that I'M
less we have something else beside our
I numbering interests or fisheries to sustain
Q us, we must droop like st. Joseph and
i Kalamazoo, at the mouth of the river
S And we would say to those persons
who have one or more acres of land land
there are many industrious Hollandcrs
who have ten acres each in the immediate
vicinity,) plant fruit trees, go to raising
fruit, and in few years you will reap a
{ rich reward. Our soil is unsurpassed for
: raising peaches plums and apples, and our
: climate is so modified by our contiguity
c to Lake Michigan that we escape those
+ frosts that our neighbors more inland en-
e counter most every season. There is
5 scarcely any limit to which this branch Of
: business may not be carried. We all
know that st. Joseph was asleep and
$ lifeless for more than fifteen years, while
r her soil, just like our own, lay untitled
I ill certain individual undertook to grow
/. the peach. He succeeded beyond his ex-
g pectations, and now the peach crop alone
0 of this place amounts to $4,000 annu-
ally, and the finest fruit that supplies
~