THE HAURAKI PLAINS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 95, 22 April 1922, Page 12

THE HAURAKI PLAINS.

(To the Editor.) (Sir,—Last week you publislie-fl an article, emphasising the anxiety of settlers on the Hauraki Plains owing to disease among stock due to the presence of minerals and acids in the soil interfering with the water supply. What you term the Hauraki plains (but which U not all in the Hauraki Plains area) covers an area of well over two hundred square miles. On the older portion of the plains practically the whole of the -water used for stock is got by boring, and comes from depths varying from 50 to 500 feet, and because in an isolated instance the water contained acids, making it unfit for cattle, an article appears which would give the impression that this trouble -was general. A veterinary club has been formed, terming itself* the HauTaki Plains Veterinary Club. ' Its headquarters are at Turua, ■which is outside the Hauraki Plains area, and probably the majority of its members are also outside the area. An attempt has .been made to form a club with headquarters inside the Plains area. The settlers have been asked to put up, say £5 each to provide a salary for a veterinary surgeon to reside in the district and be- at the call of any member requiring his services—this without extra payment except for medicine. So many are of opinion that the services of a vet. would not be worth £5 a year to them, that so far those moving in the matter have not been able to get the club farmed. The first iballot for land on the Plains took place in May, 1910. The cream supply to the dairj company started in the spring of 1911. In that season only about £400 w-ortli of cream was supplied. The writer ican show now on one farm three of the •cows which supplied their qn'ota towards that £400 worth, which mean* practically eleven seasons' milking completed, and in the same shed great"mud daughters of those 1911 eclwg, each ation .born and reared on the place tli is together with the feeling to--5 the formation of a vet. clnb look -!• ough the general run of the "occuare passing through such an

.. • - his time"? The main cause of I :>-■ ; trouble on the Tla'ms is that some i'). ile settlers neglect the cleaning of ]t.\; 'ir drains, thus .allowing their land to igsi into a sodden condition in wet IvvtatheT. Any land, if allowed to get "■'■'-.. such a. condition, tihrough lack of ] .-■: mage, will develop acidity or sour- .'• in the feed, and that causes general jfallfng off in the healUi of cattle. When ifchat trouble arises the water, the ric-li- ;_«*» of the feed, in fact anything and " 1 ■■:'.) thing is blamed except the owner's Jwe neglect.. We do not require any 'ovo: .ing as to the quality, and what >'..• an do with our land/tout articles m<> as the one mentioned affect the disw-; . disadvantageouslj- in a general way )•!■■'■ they only cover isolated instances. ! -j. etc.. PLAIN'S SETTLER.