ON HAURAKI PLAINS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 247, 18 October 1922, Page 9

ON HAURAKI PLAINS.

THINGS SEEN ON THE ROAD. A ONE MAN-POWER PILEDRIVER. (By the "Star" Special Representative.) NO 3. Motoring along the road between pacroa and Xethrrtou we stopped 10 vratc'n a queer performance, in which a man acted a< an engine. Away to the rizht was a dredge, cutting an elevenloot canal to drain this portion of eountrv: and there on the road was erected a pile-driving outfit. This \va«s preparing for the construction of a bridge, and the piles were being driven so that the structure could 1>« completed rapidly (leaving only the decking and railing to be done I as soon a< the out reached the road, which it was to cross before being continued for a further distance of four mile?. The dredge was floating in 10 feet of water in an eleven-foot tut. showing the remarkable amount of water held by thU swamp country. Noah might have driven pile-; in a manner quite as modern. The heavy '"monkey" was being hoisted by a man who turned the handle of an old-fashioned winch— ".for all the world" a? the washer-lady ■turns the handle of tho boardinghouse mangle, excepting that she would turn it much faster. The man was sweating in mid-summer fashion, with straining muscles and a pained look. When the"monkey ,, got to the top and fell, an expression of intense relief would relax his features and he would wipe the perspiration from his brow, and- smile. as he took a well-earned "breather." The foreman assured us lie (or "they") was (or "were") sinking ''about' , one. pile a day, to the depth of 126 feet. Inwardly we named the gentleman Ananias, ■for it appeared to us that a pile a week ■would have been nearer the mark. But we did not contradict the foreman. He should have known. He was looking on all the time. Besides, he was a bigpowerful man and lip didn't seem to take kindly to our questioning, anyhow. Gov. eminent servants never do. and this was a PJW.D. job. It transpired that there was a small benzine engine for the loisting, but it had "jibbed." and so man-power was the only alternative. TVe pitied the man. but we couldn't blame the engine. PULSES OF LIGHT AND POWER. Further in. we saw other signs of the restless progress oi the plains. There were seveTal snug camps for the •cconnnodation of men who were erecting posts for the wires which are spreading in every direction, can-ring the genii of electricity to furnish light and power for homestead, dairy and factory. This is the vital "juice" from the Hora Hora station, where the giant force of water is harnessed for the use of man to aid bis efforts in a thousand ways. Tt is * ffreat scheme, which was iborn in good time to facilitate the settlement of the Hauraki Plains. Everywhere sections hare been opened up will be felt these pulsee of power and light, which will ultimately beat in every inch of this great area of potential productivity inexhaustible, bringing the conveniences of a city to the fartherest recesses of an erstwhile swamp. • Electricity promises to do here for the farmer what it has done in America, PICTURESQUE XETWERTOX. At Netherton. on the Thames, is repealed in the sunshine a scene of quiet loveliness which could scarcely be excelled. Here the river sweeps slowly to the sea, with scarcely a ripple to mar its amber surface, whereon are reflected in enhanced tints all the gorgeous colours of blue, sky and green willows overhanging the shores, touched with golden flashes from the sun. Cattle graze along the banks, and a small steamer passing slowly down, looking almost majestic between the narrow bounds of the stream, completes a picture of rural perfection backed by the rugged outlines of the Thames mountains. iNetfherton ie not lifeless. Much produce Is brought to its busy wharf for shipment to Auckland and "fledging the river lip on which we lean" is a cheese factory, a branch of the Farmers' Union Trading Co.. a post and telegraph buildJig, a public hall, some houses, and a camp ,for the men of the P.W.D. Netherton is one of the oldest of the plains iettlements and a distributing centre for tt ,ar S e district, the productivity of which i 3 rapidly expanding. COWS DISPUTE THE WAY. leaving Xetherton. the roads for a Considerable distance are execrable. At one particularly bad spot a herd of cows, fat to stupidity with the luxurious feed which everywhere abounds, are moving lariij along' before a stockman, who has to use his whip—and hie tongue. A3 our car approaches, the cows stand ■nd dispute passage, with horns lowered to toss and sullen eyes. They stand' at we charge despite our vigorous hooting wit think better of it as the car ad-

vanees right upon them and move aside, bellowing, with angrily tossing heads and swishing tails. Then they turn to after us until the wfoip of the stockman drives them on again. There a re deep drains on either side of the roads right through this impToved area. One of this sullen herd escaped being Knocked over by our radiator by leaping aside with such clumsy ability tiiat it

nnmblrd on the edge of the bank and nearly went down. A* these drains r.re

some six feet deep, the task of getting , the beast out again would have taxed all the resources of its custodian and sadly

impoverished that rich vocabulary for which stockmen are so justly renowned-

HOMES OF THE PIONEERS. Along the N'jjatea Road, at fairly frequent intervals, are tr> be seen some homesteads whkli are fully equal in design and build to the newest of our

Cl t.v suburbs, fitted with electric liglit *n<l a\\ convenience-; and showing up teauti-fiilly in tiieir green field settings. These arc are home* of men who dared the adventure of .pushing out into the swamp In ml* when the idea was pooliPOOheil. Tiipy built little hut« in tile betinning. TiiVy felled their timber and Put their ternit and burnt off. They dug U P what stumps were left and they ploughed through the stiff sour peat and •et it to lie fallow and sweeten into rich. Tle * s . stirring it asrain through the seasons of passing years until it became fertile, friable \m»v. growing grass lush 60 that the former bog would feed a hea?t to every erstwhile worthless acre. They •heated and suffered land maybe starved somewhat) during the long wait; but they won nut. Amd- then they pulled down their hut~ and used the "material f °r rovrshrrU or stable* and they got "killed builders down from the city to "oild them bnngalowa and villas which to-day aTe their pride and the marks of their sucoees and the admiration of the •triager who pa*&ee by and wonders at Htir courage and their indurtry. The*

are the pioneers of the plains, the men who have made the area what it is (with ! the grateful help of the Government I drainage ). And there are others followI ing in their footsteps with the same courage and the same determination to succeed, enaowed with a fuller hone because of the examples of success they see about? them. And these men, too, will toirn their useless acrea into rich pastures and in their turn will pull down the slab and board liut3 they are painfully putting up to-day—and theirs shall be the triumph also of happy ■homes and fertile fields! (To be continued.)