THE LIMESTONE LANDS OF THE KING COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 85, 12 April 1899, Page 2

THE LIMESTONE LANDS OF THE KING COUNTRY.

(By the Special Correspondent of the

'N.Z. Farmer.')

A NATURAL TUNNEL

We paid a visit to Mr Irwin's homestead, a neat little building entirely encased in corrugated iron, a wise precaution against bush fires during the burning off season. After dinner, Mr Irwin piloted us to a wonderful limestone cave, or rather tunnel, ■ for it ran straight through from side to side of a steep hill on his property., After a scramble through a rough track and across a small swamp we came to the entrance of this natural tunnel in the face of an almost perpendicular limestone cliff. Mr Irwin carried a torch and Mr Ellis and I a candle each. We found the cave had a perfectly level floor, apparently the old bed of a stream which had hollowed out this tunnel. The width varied from say Half a chain to 15 or 20 feet, and the length was as nearly as possible 440 yards, or a quarter of a mile. The sides were formed of solid limestone, and the vaulted roof may have stretched up 50 or 60 feet in height in some "places, here and there showing softly shining clusters of glow worms. With scarcely any chipping.off of angles a railway line might have been laid through thisgrand tunnel of nature's construction. There are many of these strange Underground caverns and passages in this district, formed by the action of water upon the limestone strata. It is a common thing for a stream to take a plunge into the side of a hill and disappear, emerging again, it may be miles away, to sparkle once more in the sunshine of the upper air. But these are curious local features of more interest to the tourist than the intending working settler. Mr Irwin is a Taranaki boy, and what he doesn't know about a pioneer settler's work is not worth worrying over. He is evidently a capable young colonial,. who uses his brains as well as his hands in his work,.and I am proud to say we have.many Of his sterling sort amongst our young New Zealandera, who could hold their own anywhere in the world for all round capabilities, without any show or bluster. - . ' . A GRASS COUNTRY. Everywhere in the bush clearings the grass had well taken hold, though,' owing to different causes, such as bad burns, or unfavourable weather at sowing time, in some parts the feed would be better than in Others. But I saw ample evidence that-this is a natural pasture country—broken, no doubt, so that a great proportion of it is unploughable, but affording many areas, ranging from say ,50 to. SOG acres, which cOUld be ploughed and cultivated. . •■' I THE VIEW FROM MATAWHESO. We climbed, or rather our horses did, to the top df the highest hill on the block, known as Matawheto, on which the trig station is fixed. From this hill, which rises to a height of abont 900 feet above sea level, a very extensive view of the surrounding country is obtained, although owing to the haze and smoke of bush fires in distant clearings,one cOnld not see so far on this particular occasion as, if the atmosphere] had been clearer. The sun was low in the west, and shining through broken cloud banks, and seldom have I gazed upon a more beautiful panorama of hill, and dale, climbing woods and shaded misty hollows. Te Kuiti lay in a straight line north east of where we stood; to the left in a northerly direction stretched the Kinohaku East Block,- and between that and the sea Kinohaku. West, spreading north towards Kawhia. Looking straight out towards the sea, about 15 miles Off, We Could see where Mr W. p. Reeves, now Agent-General, had" taken up 5000 acres of very broken land on the.coast. A little further down the Cdast ybu come to Awakino North, while between this and the Mokau river goihtf inland lies AwakinO East and Mahoe* nui Block, where Mr John Ellibtt and his sons, along with Other settlers, have taken up land, gbo*l iv duality, but most of it Very rugg"d country. The Puketiti Block itself touches at its Southern corner .the Mokau river, into- Which fIoWS the Mangaotaki creek, a considerable stream, which runs about three miles thro^h Mr Ellis? -property. The whole of this great block of country lay spread Out before us, with,its infinite variety Of rugged hills, sloping downs, and hollow basins, the gtfr dations of light and shade created by the setting sun, the clouds, and the sharply undulating outlines of the landscape, united*, With the Varied hues of sombre forest, the lighter stretches of fern and scrub, and closer at hapd the verdure of grass, to farm a scene of extreme beauty. The whole was Set in a frame work of misty blue, forest-clad ranges, especially looking in the. direction of Avrakind, while here and,there, far aWa#, froth' behind a wooded range, a column Of thick soft smoke would rise Up from the dark forest into the Still evening air, telling of some hard, working bush settler making a home in the wilderness. One Could picture this country a network of smiling farms, intersected with roads' lined with hedges, sheep and cattle grazing by the hundred on the rich grasSy slopes, while gardens and fruitful orchards surround the peaceful homesteads. These are the features that will one day meet the eye of anyone standing pn Matawhero, or any of the surrounding hills. But I fear it is a consummation which will be long, delayed unless a new system of deaKng with native lands,'both in the: interests of the colony and of the Mabris is adopted and carried out. I have my ideas on this subject, but have no space to explain them here. I will only say that Aucklanders are blind to their best interests if they do not agitate for the Opening Up of this grand country for the benefit 6f their rapidly increasing sons and daughters, and for the sake of the added commercial prosperity it would bring to the provincial district and to the city of Auckland. In so far as they are working in this direction the Government deserve credit and support, but we may safely Urge Upon them to move faster, and if it is necessary to raise money to acquire and open.up these lands, let the requisite amounts be raised for such clearly defined purposes. On our way home we rode through Mr McNicol's property, and striking the Mangaotaki Creek rode for a long way alongside of '-this beautiful stream, which seems to be an ideal trout stream, with its cool, clear water*; deep pools and rocky'shallows.

I was surprised to learn from Mr Ellis that he had got no practical response from the hatchery at Okoroire when he asked for a few fish to stock this and other creeks in the neighbourhood, notwithstanding that he had taken considerable trouble and gone to some expense in assisting the society to place fish in the Waipa and adjoining streams. PICTURESQUE EFFECTS.. I was not sorry to reach the homestead that evening about dark, and here I may refer to a remarkable feature of- its immediate surroundings. The house is built on a knoll, and all about it are detached masses ,of limestone standing up in groups Out of the ground like the hardy ruins of some old castle. One group of these seeming truncated turrets and towers, with grey rounded buttresses, adorned with tufts of waving grass and flowejring koromiko growing from between the evenly piled up layers Of limestone would easily pass in' a' photograph for the crumbling relics of some medieval castle. Sometimes One of these piles will from the sinking of the ground fall over against another, the laminations all opening Out on one side like the leaves of a half-opened book. TRIAL PASTURE PLOTS. Before I conclude these notes I Would mention that Mr Ellis has done a useful work in making, experiments by sowing acre and smaller plots Of his land with one kind of grass seed only, so that experience may show which grasses thrive best at Puketiti. In the mb'ister hollows meadow. foxtail grows luxuriant!}', and Chewin's fescue is plainly going to be a valuable grass on the drier steep slopes. I examined a plot of hard fescue (festuca du'riusculaj grown from colonial seed, which Mr Ellis stated had been a splendid take, but at the time oi my visit the plants lay in scores about the surface of the ground, withered and dead. They had evidently been pulled up by grazing stock, having little root hold in the soil, which just here was of a rather snuffy character On the surface. But in this particular Chewin's fescue, sO like the other variety in appearance, Is superior, as it is never pulled up in this way. Other grasses experimented with were Matakana red top, fiorin, Some of the poas, sheep's parsley (growing well), meadow . fescue (likely to thrive and prove valuable), and. Other kinds. PAEMAKO SPECIAL SETTLEMENT. The next day we rode to Otorohanga, taking the beaten road for it this time, reaching the township early in the evening, after a ride of about thirty-two miles, all through limestone . country. We passed close to Puketiti the Government Special Settlement of Paemako, cut up into twelve sections of about 100 acres each. These are all occupied by a' good class of working settlers, most of them hailing from Oamaru. Whatever their difficulties have' hitherto been, they are ' now evidently gpitig to stick to their holdings, and will no doubt do well in time. Occasionally along the road I noticed some, patches of stout oatem stubble where a strong crop, had evidently grown, and in Maori cultivations maiz6 and native tobacco was growing well. PUKETARATA. ■: .From Otorohanga we rode the same evening out to Puketarata, where Mr Ellis lives' with his ' family upon 400 acres of land. Here I saw some gigantic potatoes of the Late Rose variety, some, weighing over 3lbs each. I also went' through a paddock of red clover, knee hi^h, which little more than a month before had been cut for hay. This is not limestone land, but the best light Waikato land, and it is alongside of this property that the Government are throwing open for selection on March 27th between 2000 and 3000 aerfes in small sections at prices ranging from iob to 15b per acre. TSie nearest raihvay station is Kiokio, where early the next morning I caught the Auckland train, arid said good-bye to my kind host, Mr .:■ J. W» Ellis, under whose guidance I had been enabled to explore so valuable a district of the King Country, and *to gauge its capabilities by the r^ults actually achieved after four years' work by Mr Ellis and .his fellow settlers at Puketiti. Lastly, let me say that -thousands of acres of the limestone country are as good as any thing at Prilcetiti.

The End