THE GREAT NORTHERN WAIROA

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 253, 23 October 1907, Page 3

THE GREAT NORTHERN WAIROA

NORTH AUCKLAND EXPANSION.

THE PASSING OF THE KAURI.

The Northern Wairoa River is fully, entitled to the prefix great. On reaching the wide sea-like expanse of the Kaipara waters which form the remarkable northern estuary, it is difficult to define where the harbour proper ends and the Wairoa begins. A sense of vastness is experiencedjvand in place of an ordinary river channel, one is confronted with a stretch of water many miles wide, flowing with great tide force away inland to those of its far off tributaries which fall from the .dividing ranges of Hokianga on the north and the - coastal ranges north of Whangarei on theQsast. Steamboats can ply from the Heads to Pukekohe, close to the famed "VYairua Falls, a distance of SO miles, and on the main tributaries small craft can be propelled for days and days. With such a marine highway, the Wairoa district possesses an asset the value of which is incalculable, and which in the future will furnish sites ad. lib. for the Dominion's great manufactories. At present Craig liners and other large vessels may be seen weekly loading wealths of kauri and white pine for the Australian market, at a distance of fifty miles from the Heads. And, whilst making mention of the shipping, it is interesting to note the degree of importance which Kaipara Harbour has reached, particularly so as the great bulk of its oversea trade is supplied by Northern Wairoa industries. During the past year, G3l vessels cleared outwards from the principal ports in the colony, the numbers from the leading ports being: Auckland, 222; Wellington, 135; Kaipara, 92; and then follow in order the other marine centres of commercial life. Kaipara-'s export trade is wholly that of timber, and the question frequently arises what is to become of the Northern Wairoa when its forest areas are decimated, and- when, for the last time, is heard the vari-pitched screams of the many sawmill sirens as they at daybreak disturb the slumbers of the workers in the milling hives. For the kauri is fast passing, and where years ago there stood vast tracts of gigantic forest pines now is clear country —but of whicli more anon. There are on the banks of the Wairoa six large milling plants, which, when in full swing, devour annually logs containing 100,000,000 feet. To satisfy their voracious maws the amount of enterprise and labour engaged is necessarily enormous, and quite an army of workers are employed in felling, crosscutting, hauling, and daily transporting hundreds of huge logs to the respective mill booms. With such a consumption of log timber it stands to reason that t-Le premier industry of the north must in measurable time lapse, and the question is what era' is to follow that of timber conversion?

Not many years ago there was a concensus of opinion amongst city dwellers that the North could only furnish timber and gum. As time rolled on, one of the Wairoa features was noted as being lowlying banks, more or less swampy, uninviting for settlement, whilst the forest devastated territories were regarded as being agriculturally Jjrren. The worked out gum lands wers <fcsessed at a nil value, the gum swamps were a. blot upon the landscape, and the many £iy,er'trib'U-i taries which flow hundreds-■,of 'miles>./to. feed the great river, were characterised a&. being simply obstacles to travel and difficulties expensive to bridge. And so for years the enormous area of" country impigning on the Wairoa was allowed to lay idle, and the few settlers, who, in early days, with British hope and pluck, carved out homes in the then wilderness, had a momentous task in eking out a. decent living, and were fain to improve their circumstances by joining the ranks of the then übiquitous gumdigger. And now the gumdigger—with the exception of the genus Austrian —is seldom met, and yet by leaps and bounds the district is fast assuming an importance second to none in the colony. With the passing of the kauri, little regret seems to be felt, and the many hundreds of keen business men who have theirecapital invested in undertakings thrd&gnout Hobson County regard with complacence the changing state of affairs.

For with the advent of the dairy industry, the low-lying river flats have been fashioned into habitable locations, and blocks and sections' which 20 years ago -were unsaleable at a few shillings per acre, now command a price of much more than as many pounds. Their fertility has been proved to be almost immeasurable, and it is reputably affirmed that 150,000 acres of such lands now being brought into tillage, Trill in the near future carry and fatten oce beast to the acre, or maintain in excellent feed almost as many thousands of dairy cattle. And yet, only as yesterday, those lands were unheeded as sources of wealth, and constituted a part factor which earned Auckland the pitiable position it long occupied in the eyes of our legislators as being unworthy of money grants for its development, and undeserving of assistance. To-day, throughout the greater part of Wairoa's length, the creamery steamer daily plys its way, collecting from Raupo on the south, and Timgiteroria on the north, the rich supplies which go to maintain the co-opera-tive butter factory at Mangawhare, and which monthly return golden sovereigns in plenty to the now highly important cowspanking landed proprietors. The butter industry maintains its army of incessant workers throughout the seasons, and the wisdom of co-operation is plainly in evidence, in that every supplier is a shareholder in the factory, and that there is only one factory, with many creameries, in the whole Wairoa district. In the bad old days the butter maker* had difficulty in getting an average price of 4d per pound for his output—in those days he killed the calves as soon as they made their appearance—whilst to-day he receives 9d per pound for liis butter fat, and a sympathetically fat percentage in addition for his pluck and business acumen. And so the country side smiles, and the man who in the past was looked upon as the hard-placed cockatoo is to-day a power in the land and an arbiter in the destinies of his country.

Apart from the rich alluvial flats, Wairoa possesses hundreds of thousands of acres of high lands, which produce grass in a surprising fine fashion. Hence the remarkably good quality beef supplied to the Auckland market, for the best of such is raised in Kaipara confines, and the bulk of it grazes on Wairoa lands. For 10 years past buskfelling contracts have failed to attract sufficient labour for the district's wants, so great has been the speed of advancementj but.in spite of an unsatisfied supply of brawny muscle, each year see 3 thousands of acres felted, burned, and grassed. Multiply a minimum annual clearance of 5000 acres by 10 years, and.an insight is at once obtained, ifliv the. jronderful progress of

the long neglected, but now superlatively prosperous Northern Wairoa,. ' ~, . " (To be Continued.)