TAURANGA TO ROTORUA.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 87, 11 April 1906, Page 3

TAURANGA TO ROTORUA.

THE CLAIMS OF A'PROSPEROUS DISTRICT. I

(By Pioneer.)

In these days of haste and waste;- and generally chronic hysteria to live life quick, we are continually haying it thrust at US that the locomotive is the only reliable holdfast of faith, and that , the folly of the foolish virgins is a niere , circumstance to the inanity of him who endeavours to prosper beyond the shriek , of this Alpha and Omega of modern progress; The gospel of the harrow steel track has become such, a permanent text to.most of us that a good many Auek-~ landers, for instance, will doubtless be surprised to learn that away .down on: the East Coast, twenty males from Tauranga, the nearest port, and thirty miles to-day from anywhere, counting from the railway, is a district that is probably as prosperous a, settlement as any of its size in the Auckland Province— the settlement of The -Hill (Te Puke). The pakelia has increased the size of this hill considerably on the map, for it now embraces something between 30,000 and 40,000 acres, and nearly all of them rather more than passing fertile. And~ this rich hill, and its diversified neighbourhood of swamp and mountain, level land and rugged, is truly a country with a past, present,. and a future. The past was a right brave and stirring one, bristling with poised and clashing meres, and,resonant with the reverberating "Hoehl" that echoed from every_ defiant hilltop. The present was ushered in some thirty odd years ago, when, a little party of hardy pioneers landed at Maketu, and with their household goods strapped on. their backs tramped jound the big swamp, to enter into possession of the land that native owners were then" ready and able to sell or barter-to them. There they built the first rough whares of: occupation, and set about to alter the. native brown itte of the earth to the more lucrative and jjakeha-loving tint ' of green. But it wasn't a Hfe of beer and. skittles. Accost an old Te Puke settler, ask him .how he got along without the railway. "For long, after I .came I here/* he will tell you, "every pound of ! flour consumed by mc and mine I had to pikau -myself from the coast. It was heavy work, that battle every once [in a while over swamp-and hill, through ! scrub and fern, with a fifty pound bag of flour on one's back, besides sundriesI But we did it." And he looks as though 1 he could repeat the performance even j now. It is this sort of spirit that sends' j the Anglo-Saxon colonising the wiiderI ness and unconcernedly slogging it into a- garden. The result of'these thirty odd years of ever progressive effort on the fruitful Te Puke soil is evidenced to-da.y in the annual,exodus of fOOO fat beeves from the immediate 5 district, among its other products. "All this we.have accomplished, "and >more, without the necessary railway,", says Te Puke" and its neighbours.- ""Now* in the name of common justice, r give ■ us the opportunity of showing what wre can do with its And Te Puke knows well enough what'it is talking about and capable of doing.' . . " . ! THE DfvTDLNG OF THE ROUTES. Likewise does: Tauranga^.but. Tauranga wisely lies] low »n the qumtion of route, for that little .place "of- memories wishes above all things to see the smoke of the locomotive trailing up to, its door, and cares not seriously whether that smoke trail across from the North, and Waihi,:' or out rrom the South, through the roundabout but more profitearning course,via Te Puke and Mamaku. A coach journey along these rival routes, if they can so be termed, is quite sufficiently convincing to the visiting stranger as to- which possesses the more claims to immediate consideration. In the busy and perfected future, when all"this country ..will' teem, the populous reward of close settlement, a quick express' : wiH dcnritlassCvehisk the -Auck-land-bound ' passenger I through Waihi, and But that is- not yet. -In the meairfcimethereare several vital considerations! to take into reckoning in determining'the.merits of the .two "routes, &£ Ste .vital^

perhaps, is the matter of capacity to earn, revenuei. And' there" is" also that very important question to consider iv makfng , comparison-—the . cost of the construction. Now on both theses beads the Te Puke-Mamaku route scores, and scores heavily,'although its rival, mayi claim to tap Waihi -with its 6000 of population and mfnmg trade, for the lart coast "'port: ' -"''-'• • -;-'■' The country lying between Waibi aai Tauranga is intersected in such a maaner toy the numerous streams that wind across to' the coast from the Te Aroliarange, M or 1» miles distant, that the qfcery - involuntarily enters one's mind ■in passing through.''3^~ "Would a line of rail here spend most of its tuna plunging through cuttings-or in leaping over the grflEfiesr* The answer is not easy to furnish casually. As for the quality and consequent reverme-making ability of the soil from a railway point of view, it must be allowed that while capable of much more than a careless glance would give it credit for it is absolutely not in the same category with the country pu the other side; of the harbour.. Without entering into unnecessary details, something of the difference in general productiveness may be gathered by comparing the two settlements of Katikati and Te Puke, both, established about the same* time!. _ The former, althoughit has the'advantage of water communication, is probably in a les3 prosperous, state to-day than it was ten years ago. In travelling through it one is impressed with the idea that the place is in * state of semistagnation. It is neither progressive nor prosperous-lookihg, and-affords a striking contrast to its more rivah ...,;,;--v - A LAND OF PROMISE. Overland from Tauranga _to Mamaku, via Tc Puke, is about the same distance as the journey between thelfirstjnamed place and WaihL but all.similarity - in. route ends with J the mile .pegs. Immediately aftercrossing the Irene-Bridge, at the bead of the harbour, the road enters the Papamoa native block, the country of the Ngaite Kangi, evidences of whose earlier strength: are amply demonstrated by glancing at tke:numerous hilltops. Almost every ridge is crowned by the grass-grown earthworks of ancient ilaori strongholds, the remains of these old pahs in.some;cases stringing along the summits of the spurs in an almost continuous-succession of fortifications that must have presented in the hey-day of their existence a truly formidable barrier against the invader. The hard, brown, feet ; that shook the earth in the wild war canoe are now mouldered into dust, save, perhaps for an occasional withered:-and bent warrior whose tottering, frame bridges the gulf between the mighty .-* past and an unpoetie present .But although the deserted pahs are now. the grazing grounds of cattle the descendants of their former defenders are - stilt fairly numerous through this land> ? and possess-much of their original, birthright. In this particular block, fooi mdfvidualisatton k being carried out among the owners with ' a large- measure of success, and. the primitive methods Of. cultivation, followed by . their ancestors are giving glace to methods "a ; littfe more consonant withi the .European of "agriculture. Much of the block, however, in common with the greater portion of other nativeowned lands-fix this and'"surrounding districts, is stEQ. under dominion: of the original fern—a distressful sight in the eyes of the thrifty' white*settler.; Ami ..his satisfaction gains nothing by the ad--1 ditional knowledge that all these "native lands are free from local taxes, that is """■ to say, 'the settler makes the" road: and pays "for its upkeep, while the Maori i .uses it. and. pays~nqthing—in the rankling mind' of' the - mercantile white, a clear and unjust case of .something for; nothing. Most ; of the" after the. happy-go-lucky : improvidence of their race; would now be quite ready, to part with the remnant of their ancient patrimony- Fortunately, perhaps, for them and the exchequer of the country, the Government vetoes such utter alienation of the Maori and his only, asset, which still leaves to him a few: shreds of bis independence of spirit. Take Ms land, and the next day you wul have to give him blankets. It is i only a matter of ethics, of course, and the" settler is clamouring for the land. But there .is-other good land in this country in- plenty! -There are tens of . thousands of acres on every side, and lying between the Papamoa."Hills and Matata is a twenty-mile stretch of rich ~ swamp, -with:", only a-line of sand dunes sitting between, it and the sea. The Kaituna and other streams trickle .fhrouga • it, and in the south- ft almost extends back to the Botoehu and.Botoma Lakes. ; On the other side yon journey from Te • Puke to Mamaku through, thirty odd miles of country second to nOne. Twenty; - of theinare through, heavy rimu. push, : it is true, but you regret nothing" from t that fact. A noble pieeejif forest, one : agrees, and worthy to -lrye. But. the mer- ; cantfle instinct of" the/pakeha -knows no mercy, so woe to that grani though un- ■ productive forest -whenithe^railway} .' comes along- to Te Puke. -Eor that it r will elect this rdute. few can question. I Everything conspires to attract it that ; way." The very country, broken as the 1 region is, humps itself into a razbfback: t down all the 1700 ia«6 fall from Mamai ku and Te Phke, with a steady grade, . an invitation of itself to railway ■con- [ [ strLction. Even ..the gjandly rugged i Mangarewa Gorge; falling sheer from s - the ridge to the level of the low coun--jtry. steps aside,to allow an unßrokerr. > facility. And. this line, -when.it arrives— j may it ba sooit—will traverse. beyond i { dispute geiraine corner of "God's own I country," and-the threshold of what ft t f undoubtedly destined in the near tutur* ' (tot become one of the wealthiest district? .J in the'colony. ; ..-,■'