A FORMER GOLDFIELD.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 232, 1 October 1925, Page 10

A FORMER GOLDFIELD.

I UPPER THAMES VISITED. i . . TRAIL OF THE COW. il'.y a Country Correspondent.! A visit to the old goldfields in thl ! Upper Thames makes a very interesting 'holiday for anyone acquainted with tha boom days of 30 years ago. Waite- ; kauri, which was then a flourishing ' town, with hotels and stores and lines of coaches bringing travellers in all day . long, is now only a great tangle oi ; blackberry. ; With the exception of Gordon'! | boardinghouse and another cottage, aad j the old fire brigade station, now used as a post office, not a building remains. ; Even the great battery, with its large ! wheel and fl timing, which was once & : feature on the landscape, has die- | appeared. ; Golden Cross is the same. Not h I building now remains. The battery lia* ; gone and the shaft has fallen ia '1-t I whole place is overgrown with inne- ' berry and other scrub.

| Tiie most remarkable thing about this j district is the way farming has goos j ahead. From Waitekauri right up to ! Goldern Cross all the old firewood dealings liave been stumped and the lantl | ploughed wherever ploughable, and, with j liberal top-dressing, it is turning out a i most profitable investment to tha I hardy settlers who have had tha j courage to tackle this country.

j Comfortable homesteads may be seen j all the way up the valley. Liberal j top-dressing make? this country gite & better nett profit than much richer land iin other parts. A man taking up tins iland in the rough gets it at a nominal jprhe. A few years of hard toil brings j enough into grass to milk twenty Jcr- ! which give an average return of ; . o-ver 300 ib of butterfat per annum. Tha I only outlay is the top-dressing. Wher- ! ever this land is at al! ploughabk ■«• I very small ar<>a. free from laortgasw, i will give X grood living to a family, trim j a little to ?pare. ! Farming progress has been : marked on the Waihi Plain*. A 'year? ago these plains, which contain about I.~>.l>''o acre- of ploughable land, were considered to be ab-obJiek' use ; Ic-s. The plough and an intelligent system of top-dressing has turned the ! whole area into smiling homesteads. Each farm has its plantation of shelter trees, but more belts are needed to p vs ' the shelter required.

Settlement i- al?o very marked in th« Waitawbets Valley. This valley was ; once a worked-out timber forest overrun with blackberry. Here the indu?- ---' try of the settler? ha? been crowned : with success. The land ha? been stumped and ploughed little by little each year, j and the blackberry thoroughly beaten. : Three ploug'itings 'in one season have ; killed the blackberry, and liberal top- ! dressing has given such a good sole of 'gra-s that the blackberry is entirely ! choked out. Where it does reappear* | few cuts with the mower destroy it I absolutely. Cream lorries run everywhere, hringI ing load? of cream down to the railway. 1 whi.-h take? it to the factory at Paerot ,10 lie dealt with. In a few years this I area will make a marked difference to 'the" wealth of the Dominion. j The favourite cow in all this area i» the Jersey. Some splendid herds mar be seen. Although stock generally arc very heaithv and in good condition, farmers are complaining of the lateness of the

: ■ spring. I j A visit to Mr. Maurice Crimmins' farm ?at Waikir.o is an education tn itself. i Thi? farm wa? originally a kauri forest, i which was cut out about fifty years ag°- • The stumps are now aU cone and the ' land under the plough. Mr. Crimnuns '■has established a pedigree Jersey herd ' which for quHlitv and constitution ate f equal to anvthi'ng in New Zealano, : some •■•? the cow; g.\ ing up 10 '-■* 5 of butterfat from no other food than V. K'-cgan. Fsrmrr?' Union 1 ; organiser who has been through tie . ~v-,r :CT:CT report' a wonderful success 'Iprac-ti-allv all the t'armer? in Waite- ! kauri, vrkikinn and Wait*wheta having 1 joined the union. At Waihi there if . ratepaye*?" association. A conference |= i- 0 b, Vld with ft view to having this ' ; ,.s-„ at on merged ; r.t.-. the union. W|K -gatt has aho worked the Te AtoJ* I a nd Fl'tow district', where the Farmer- ■ Union movement ha? l-ccn 'akcn 1 '': = reported scarce ' and cow? arV off in their nulk. " -v. preset weather conditions continue .i mv -h longer it will have a serious effee on tiie factory returns.