SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 131, 3 June 1919, Page 6

SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

i THE KAPIRO BLOCK. HUGE GUMIANDS PLAIN. IN BAY OF ISLANDS. (Special to "Star.") RUSSELL, Friday. A view of the Kapiro Plains gives one furiously to think —to use the trite expression beloved of the scribes. To-day i stood on the Te Whau Hill, where tho trig station marks the apex of this vast, tract of land, and viewed the expanse of | .country which it is proposed to throw open to seldicrs in the early future, and I to mc the panorama seemed to present more scope for conjecture than time to, I contemplate its points of beauty. For beautiful the landscape undoubtedly was. It conjured up visions of the Biblical story of temptation from the mountain, and one was provoked to draw a mental parallel of benevolent fork-tailed majesty | 5 in the shape of a Land Board taking the returned soldiers to this magnificent ; ■ vantage point and inviting them to cast themselves upon the smiling lands below. To the left the landscape fell away in symmetrical undulations to the shining blue of tiie Pacific. Ahead lay the picturesque Kerikeri inlet and the uplands of Hobson County. Silhouetted in a blue j haze against the bluer sky were the ranges of the llokianga, and, roughly defining the block on the right and scpar- ' ating it from the country immediately beyond were the Maungaparentia Hills. > And spread at the foot, in a carpet of L green and brown and grey shades, illuminated by splashes of golden gorse, were the level reaches of the lower plain, suggesting rosy visions of homesteads , and fat oxen. The view is one of the finest of the North, when tho land is ■ bathed in the full-flooded mid-day sun, but with recollections of gumflelds viewed under less congenial conditions, any disposition to ecstasy was quelled. A LAND WITH A FUTURE? T do not really mean to place the Land Board and the soldiers relatively in j the position of tempter and tempted, or to imply that the correct retort to the invitation to settle this land should be "Oct thee behind mc," but what undoubtedly is the fact is that the splendid contour and the expanse of tho country inevitably suggests that some day there must be a magnificent future for it, in spite of the evil imitation of gumlands. The Kapiro Planes are distinctive in the category of gum country, inasmuch they do not possess the same repellAt characteristics as the steeper hills of barren land which restrict one's vision to stunted growths of ti-tree and fern, only relieved by naked patches of clay. The extent of their sweep carries a sense of! hidden possibilities, and one cannot con-!, ceice that for all time they will remain! within the designation of the unproductive waste lands of the Dominion. I The Kapiro block itself, which is only part of the plain, contains 12,732 acre";. It adjoins the Maungaparenua block of ; 00_S acres, with its south-westerly appendage, the Ellis Estate, of 1791 "acres. • Thus, in one connected stretch, is over 20,000 acres of country awaiting settlement by soldiers. The Kapiro Block is sub-divided into .11 sections of from 178 acres to S."i4, an average of 400 acres. It partakes of a very irregular shape, rising , gently from the flats of Waipapa until . it reaches the steeper grades of the high | land marked by the two trig stations on I either side of the' North Road, a few miles south of the Whangaroa County border. There a rectangular piece of about a square mile and a-half juts ! over the rise and slopes down to the north. On the east the country falls away to the sea and almost abuts onj the Mangonui inlet—which, by the way,' is nowhere near Mangonui. PLOUGHABLE LAND. Practically the whole of the land is ideal country for ploughing and requires very little clearing. In the main it is in low and sparse fern. There is a good deal of ti-trce scrub, and patches of j gorse and akeake which would require! cutting. But in the main the country I is ready for the plough. The Waiawara"wara and Kapiro streams run from the' across the plain, on the lower, levels, and the Waipapa stream serves ! a small portion of it. These are all good, clear streams of continuous flow, but ' possibly portions of the block untapped ! by these may present a serious watering ■ problem in the drier weather. Tho block ' ' is well 6erved by good clay roads con- '' i necting with Kaeo, Kerikeri", Kawakawa, : > and other places. Kerikeri (by steamer ' to Russell, thence by launch ferry) and ' afterwards on horseback, is the best ! means of visiting the block. I ' SUPPLIES AND MARKETS. ! A cream-cart service already runs' 1 : through the area from the Kaeo "factory ' to Waipapa. Supplies can be obtained j i by water to the Kerikeri inlet, and stock could be exported by scow,.' although the more practical way pro-! bably would be driving down to Whan- ' garei. The soil is of a light quality, brownish in colour, and is said to rest on clay and ironstone, ln the main it i appears to be of s.iallow depth and the metal is not far below the surface. This, however, is not likely to be a serious obstacle to ploughing. There are occasional patches of bush, but it B doubtful whether the fencing timber would go very far. For sheep, cattle, , dairying or root crops the lie and contour of the country seem to be ideal, but it is very exposed to southerly winds and, without the growth of tall shelter. c this would militate seriously against its v , success as a fruit-growing country. , f SOLDIERS AND THE LAND. '„ The whoifc problem is whether this ' ciass of country, producing stunteu ' I j growtl'.s even of tern and ti-tree, can bo 8 , urought into gra.-s or be made to pro- 2 N duce root crops, and, if so, is the cost ot r improvement commensurate with the ' I purse of the soldier-settler . The c capital valuation of the sections is cer- ° , ta.n to be low, and theie is a strong c • opiniou prevailing in the Xorth that H c tuesa lands arc taken up lor soldiers at all they should bo thrown open for free ' selection. l'i-e new maximum finan- . cial assistance granted by the Govern- ~ ment is „1000, with £ I_3o under special circumstances. It has already L been shown that the maximum which j obtained up to within a recent date, namely, _ 500, haß been insufficient to' bring so-called improved lands into pro-! fit, and therefore, if it can be demon- 1 strated that the sections can be made ] payable at the expenditure of £ 1000, I then there would seem to be a better t prospect of the soldier obtaining his t freehold than is the case with improved i land at £15 to £20 an acre which still i requires further improvement. ' j

PtOU-HTNTG AND MANURING. To place the soldier on this class o! country and leave him to his own de vices would be courting failure, on account of the high cost of individual improvement, for undoubtedly every acre requires to be ploughed and manured and scientifically worked. If the Government is serious in its intentions, it will see to it that the elementary improvements are carried out at a minimum cost by treating the block as a whole, either before or after allotting the sections. On this and the neighbouring gum lands there is scope for the employment of motor-ploughs on a large scale, by which means the soil could bo ripped up and exposed to the sweetening influence of sun and air in a very short time and at comparatively low expense. The manuring and grassing might also be done on a large scale to minimise price, freight, and cartage, and there to be an admirable opportunity | here for the establishment of a eom--1 munity block, for the improvement oi I which the ploughs and other implements could be retained co-operatively and . their cost added to capital value. In its present state the soil is poor, j but certainly not hopeless, as witness the success with which precisely similar country has been treated by the more enterprising. Bettlers. It is true that the North are disciples of little faith, and in many quarters opinion in , regard to the Kapiro is sceptical to j condemnatory. SOUTHERNER'S EXPERIMENTS. But at tho Waipapa cud arc one or two paddocks demonstrating that tho soil is capable of being brought in. Mr. White, a Southern settler, who has ! taken up land in tiie locality, has ploughed and manured with two hundredweight of basic slag to the acre, and declares that his pastures will carry a sheep and a-half to the acre. He has sown a mixture of brown top, clover, Angustissimus, and Danthonia with success, and also paspalum. With the samo manure he has produced three tons ot Algerian oats to the acre, and he declares that with deep ploughing the land of the plains will be remuneratively brought in, provided the initial cost can be overcome. He was strongly ot opinion that motor tractors should be used, -nd expert guidance afforded the settlers, in preference to allowing them to stumble along in a small and unremunerative way, treating the land wrongly and bringing it in too slowly to | allow them to make headway.