Land of Possibilities

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 105, 4 May 1923, Page 9

Land of Possibilities

The Rtiawai Flats Otamatea's Great Asset Land tKat Cannot be Exhausted (By Our Special Commissioner.) i v

i \ Xonlicre north of Auckland can a I>c!--trr illustration tie jriven of tiic fertility of river swamps when properly drained than the area of land in the Olamatea County now known as tin- Ruawai flats ~ but formerly known as the Ratipo tlats or Raupo swamp. For countless ages the tidal waters of the Northern Wairoa Kiver had swept across the land and left behind a rich marine Uepo-it. The land .wanted draining and stop-bniik protection to make it fit for farming and about a quarter of a century ago the tlovernnicnt put this work in hand To-day the Ruawai Flats may be classed amongst the tip top dairy lands of the Dominion. The settlers in this area are all doing remarkably well. The soil is very rich and capable of growing practically anything, but scientific methods are not very ratieh in evidence. Like the men in other districts the settlers on the Flats who originally took up sections are quite content to reap a rich reward from dairy grazing. The men who are buying in now—and land has changed hands up to £80 an acre—are farming with greater vigour and the production from this rich belt of river swamp is growing steadily year by year. It is held in some quarters that the" Ruawai Flats comprise the best of all the northern dairy lands; but there are thousands of acres elsewhere equally as good still held in large areas that will he closely settled as soon as the owners take- it into their heads to "disgorge." SECTIONS TOO LARGE. The Ruawai Flat? are not cut up into small enough holdings. All this land should.be farmed in lots from 50 to 100 acres but there are holdings of two, three, and four hundred acres that are certainly not being worked to advantage. Settlers are 'far too eager to get hold of hig pieces of land. Man}" men in all parts of Kew Zealand have been kept poor through endeavouring to handle farms which are far too big. The small farmer should be encouraged in every way. New Zealand should become a nation of farmers not a nation of land speculators. Too often the man who has heen pointed to as a successful farmer has in reality been a man who has taken up land and sold it again at a big advance in price without farming it at all. The successful farmer should'be known as the man who has successfully farmed his land and made it produce i(;s maximum. FIVE AXD A HALF TONS PER SUPPLIER. In a previous article I referred to the two butter factories in the Northern Wairoa, and quoted the output of the Mangawhare factory, the biggest single butter factory in the Dominion, and one of the most up-to-date. The Ruawai Co-operative Dairy Co. is the other factory, and is in its eighth year. This factory started with fifteen suppliers and manufactured 1(50 tons of cheese in its first season. Three years ago the factory commenced bitter making, and turned out ten tons in addition to 30C tons of cheese, the suppliers having grown to 40. Tor the year ending 30tli August last the output was 4-iO tons oi cheese and 119 tons of butter, the sttp pliers numbering 00. It is estimated that the.output this season from lOC suppliers will be 300 tons of butter anc 230 tons of cheese. This must be re garded as an extraordinary record, anc' a fine testimonial as to the quality o' the land. The figures are authentic." anc Show that the arcraiie production o butter and cheese per supplier is five and a lialf tons. This record will be.ai comparison with the best land in Xcv Zealand. The. factory is justly proud o its work. It has had to be considerably

extended since operations were, commenced, and so rapidly is the supply of cream increasing that further extensions «Te contemplated. Ruawai exports the whole of its otuput, and at, the grading stores has be&i averaging between 03 and 94 points out of a possihle 100. A TrLT AT THE BUTTER TOOL. When I was paying a visit to the Tluawai factory I was attracted by what appeared to be a notice gummedto the wall. Scrutiny showed that some '"wag' , nad heen composing verse at the expense of the proposed butter pool, and as the words appear to be original I give the verses word for word, without comment as to whether or not they reflect the feeling of the district:— SONG ABOUT BCTTKB. Sin? a song of butter, put it in n pnol. Hand it to directors, make yourself n fool; "uen the pool is opened let suppliers sine. Tiiouffh we've lost our butter, our Giumjfellow's king. Tbe kins was In the polluting house. counting up tbe cost, erasu was down In Wellington tlilnklns what was lost: '"ppliers in the conntrv wore *cllin" out ' their farms, ' " "hllo London spnpulntors wore full of bntter-s charms. TAEAXAKT EC'LTPSED. 'Taranaki is not in it with Huawai." one of the principal settlers informed mc when T wn> chatting with him connermng the productivity of the land, we have Taranaki men on the flats n°W; they sold out in the vicinity of tIDO an acre and took up land here for «M than half that amount, and they are doing much better. They had to iarm the land in Taranaki- grow winter feed and feed for the dry months, but »»ey don't bother about that in the ■aorth. I took up 00 acres on the flats J- years ago, and since then have been *'«c to take up an additional -ioO acres for my boys." ''Did you farm your section. - ' I asked. i*. J l ' X dkl ,oil ,<rlain " t( - nt - I>( - ---eaiwe 1 w as a practical farmer in Eng'ana, and it was absolutely necessary were to grow in the summer the. whole « the fed wanted for gt(jck dllrinj: Uic t m w 'nters. I am one of the few" who tove really farmed, my holdinu."

"How many cows did yon milk or your original !>0 acres?" 1 queried. •I milked 40. but could have milkec SO it I had wanted to make slaven of the work. It was not necessary, but I agree that the land should be worked to its maximum capacity, but of course that will never be done" as long as the areas held are fairly large. •I quite agree with you," he continued, "that the whole 'of the Kuawa flats. ..r practically the whole of th< land, could be farmed in very small sec tions, the land being rich and able lc grow anything. A GOOD ILLUSTRATION"". '•T will give you an illustration. Take my farm, for instance. Last fall 1 put in a crop of oats. When they were foui feet high I fed the crop down with m> cows; afterwards f put the reaper anil binder to work, and cut a very heavj crop. In November I put in a'crop ot maize which grew to thirteen feet it height, which 1 also fed to my herd That is all in one season's work, and understand 1 did not put in an ounce ot manure. If the land was only farmed it would be wonderful country. 1 have refused f!)0 an acre for my land. '"If you take notice you will rind very few haystacks about the district. Tin country keeps so green one rinds it a job to get the cattle to cat hay. The land here is worth any money you like to give for it. I offered £85 an acre for land in the Foxton district 13 years ago, and could not get it. I came North and purchased land here at £10 an acre and- I can assure you I would soonei have one acre of this land than two of the other. There is plenty of land still to he obtained at a reasonable price The people in the South do not realise what the North has to offer them. Men have been selling out in Taninaki lately at £150 an acre and coining up here a?id getting better land at. half the price Some people say that £G0 or £70 an acre is far too high a price for land on 'he flats here. They don't Icnow th< value of this land when they express such jin opinion. I find that fhe morr I plough my land the better it is. Man; settlers merely 'skim' the surface witl: .lie plough. I use a swamp plough and turn the soil in about eight inches and bring up the alluvial deposit again and I will never exhaust it in my time." CAREER ONLY COMMENCING. The Ruawai flats may be said to Iμ only at the commencement of their dairy ing career, and in the years to come with the laud farmed in smaller hold ings, and more, attention given to tin science of farming, the gfrowing of crop: for dry and wet seasons, the sclectioi of herds and testing at the farm, thii plendid belt of country will not onh carry a big population, but will be one of the important dairy centres of tin Dominion. The Ranpo Drainage Boarr which is alive to Ihe necessities of tin district, have a Priesttuan dredge a work widening the canals which cut of the water shed and isolate the swam] from any chance of flooding. A selierm is also under consideration, involvinj the expenditure of between £20,000 ant £30,000 for building a higher stop haul and putting up further protective work to keep the river from enchoaching. am to prevent the erosion of the banks. Gooi roads have been constructed throujrhou the swain]) area, and the Otamale; County Council is (tarrying out a com plete scheme of metalling to make then fit for motor traffic throughout th year. When all the works under wa; and contemplated are completed the set Hers will have reached a stage of devel opulent which 20 years ago would liav seemed impossible.