A DELECTABLE ISTHMUS.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 293, 10 December 1910, Page 18

A DELECTABLE ISTHMUS.

"-BOKIA2TOA TO THE BAY. Iv*. p A LAND OF PROMISE.. (SeePage 13.) 'J- ' Many years ago the isthmus between the Bay of Islands and the Hokianga— roughly about thirty miles from. Water to water—must have carried an enormous population. The Maoris have a 6aying about the isthmus upon which Auckland is built, "Tamaki makati rau" —!Tamaki of the hundred lovers. The •dmirera of this more northern highway :between the east and the west coastsof the Far North must have been numbered by the thousand, if the Tamaki counted her followers in hundreds. At the 'bay oh the Hokianga, and right across the isthmus, there are many.evidences of occupation in. the remote past. Every ipoint' of vantage, every hill is terra/ced. TWs is classic ground, and every foot -teems with associations cd the warlike Ngapuhi. In the days tocome this country will again carry a great population,; and the Bay of Islands, once the • Capital of New Zealand, will have a city by its calm, blue waters, . and the Bay—one of the finest harbours in the Dominion—will "shelter fleets of steamers. One -hears about the awakening of the North, the North coming into its own, and a dozen-similar prophecies., tut the North has "been awake, all ,the time. The North is like. wants populations and,.that population must <be farmers.. There has (been too much timber and, tog much giim in the .past to make it worth the settlers' while to farm the land in a manner that means Buocess. But now that the gum and the timber are getting scarcer, more attention is ibeinc paid to the only permanent source of Wealth, and the day is Hot far distant when it will he farmed on scientific lines. On thi3 isthmus there are probatfty -fifty thousand acres of land that is as good as anything one could wish. ■ '■■ • The, North is liko a show that has wen /badly "iboomed." It 'has 'been badly advertised. It was in this part of the feltonl that a well-known run owner conceived the brilliant idea of growing Whin Crashes for fodder, and .broad-cast, he SOWJS4 "with a drill the seeds of this familiar weed, ■ which is ..the curse,,of many an acre of land all over the Dominion. And some of this land which was carefully juit down in this noxious weed, has since 'lV3cn rescued from its clutches, and 13 now producing the finest feed in the North Island. It was. experiments like this that gave the dog a fold name, and it is just' beginning to shake off the odour of that opprobrious epithet. Like Bracken the .Vorth has. long been "not understood." It has a climate that would make a Southern run holder gasp with pleasure, and- all the land wants is making. The peculiarity of the North is its patchy nature. You have a few thousand acres of good land in a • sea of what is admittedly poor stuff, and Tight in the <een,tTe "of an excellent stretch of good, level country you will have, a poor spur running in, like a rocky promontory into the sea. The capabilities of this isthmus have, -within ■the past faw weeks, been exemplified in a manner that leaves no Toom for criticism. Anyone who saw the fat stock at the Waimate North Show, and the exhibits from the North at the Auckland Show, would admit that the land which could produce such stuff needs "ho apology.A man who has probably done more than any other fanner in the North to prove, the capabilities of this district is Mr. James Close, of the wellknown -"Ngaheia" • estate, < Pa,karaka. Since hie purchased this fine prdperty he has-(made a marvellous improvement. A remarkable feature, or. the, progress of the.district is the tajpidity.with vvfoiph the is coming-in.- 'They say that in breaking in a new -country there -is - a pomt y after which the grass i seems to come" in naturally, gradually working ont the aboriginal growth. This part of the; North appears,.;to iave reached this'jetaige, and a man going; bjyik.there now, -'after an absence of years; would -hardly credit the vast improve-, ment—that has taken plaice. Another fine'estate is that of Mr. Harry I/ud_brook,:'and the Eemuera estate'" (Mr.. Arttair T. dose'), which runs from the! hack of Ohaeawai towards Te Ahuahu, 13 now-producing stock which would hold its own at any show. -■' .- -■■ - J There" is a dairy factory at Ohaeawai, _nih by; the Bay' of Islands Co-operatrve Dairying Company, and managed by Mr. J: HSPaulger. The output is about a hundred tons a season, and the quality of'the-butter is. evidenced by the fact that in the first year of its existence the.33ftitory carried off -the coveted WedThe suppliers are fairly well scattered, and so go in for home separa--tion. Among the larger suppliers are Mr. Pentecost .{ who has just come up from...laranaki„. and. taken the "Pakarakji"), Mr.;.T_ddbrbok, ,'Mr. ', Hingstpn, 'Faithf.nl,. -The.,:poWiSr at; the factory is supplied by a water turbine lun from a creek right alongside the factory. As an indication of the large v 'extent there is for expansion in the dairying industry, it, may be menthat this" factoiy at Ohaeawai Is the <>nly one iv the North between Hikurangi, Whangaroa, and the Hoki-anga.-'-Dairying has nbt : made the strides" it has in other parts of. the North Island, but as more Southerners, attracted by the climate, come North, this will' naturally change. One of the niost-dnteresting spots of the North'■ is the .valley of the Waimate, where the earliest settlers, the missionaries,; and their following tilled the soil, and first taught,the Maori the arts of peace. It is full of associations pleasant to the pakeha, and with its; groves, of stately puriri is one of the prettiest spots in all the North. Away towards the seacoast and towards the North the gumlands ," come in, and Waimate's green fields and cultivations—many of which are held by descendants of the early, missionaries—show up all; the more vividly. The road from Ohaeawai winds over a hill, and from the summit one looks down on this peaceful valley, dotted over with trim homesteads surrounded by trees brought from the Homeland;' It is a charming panorama, and one that a New Zealander cannot view unmoved. ,

The district with the most promising future is undoubtedly Kaikohe, the centre of this isthmus. As most people are aware, the highway across the Island runs from Opua, on the Bay of Islands, through Kawakawa, Pakaraka, Ohaeawai, and Kaikohe to the Hokianga waters, or an alternative route from Ohaeawai is <by way of Okaihau, names which are familiar to the student of tho oiden times, an'i the great Hoke's War. At present ObaeawaP is , the „ half-way ITttt\? n t ers i - the , xact that tho railway, which is ; to *.',„ feff^ M ' and .will

come, oat -a. jifttle, .south .of the. present | ;townsliipj* and : eventually"'' wfienF" tlte North Auckland;; *. Main , Trunk comes ! through the great ISfongakahia Valley ' it will join the Kaikohe-'Kawakawa line' l some few miles out <)f Kaikohe, which will then be a junction of no mean importance. Of course, this is a vista ot the future. The Kawakawa line is now 'being pushed 1 on, and several hundred ■men are abw at work 6n the first three miles authorised.' Until' the line gets through to 'Kaikohe, it will not be a phenomenally -profitable one, and the De- • partnient i seems to ■he seized with the importance of pushing on the,connection. .. j.l •: .... ' I There are round Kaikohe miles of excellent -country, and negotiations are now in progress for the opening up of i several large areas of native,land, notably the valuable Motatau Block of some 80,000 acres. Kaikohe is prajctij cally all native-owned, and from the ' rising- ground on the south side, of the township, the country one sees J or -miles [round, far as the eye can sweep, away I towards the Mangakahia, right round to the valley leads to the Hokianga iis all in the hands of the natives. Until the pakeha is allowed to take up these great stretches ' there I cannot -be much progress. The Maori is just doing enough to scripe a living I for himself, and perhaps one cannot iblame him. The climate and his'tradiI fckms do not induce a Btrfenuous life, and 'so he spends his days under his own teai-tree bush, content with the liberal I sunshine and such good as the gods ■ send him.