TAMAKI'S SUNNY SLOPES.

Auckland Star, Volume LVI, Issue 245, 16 October 1925, Page 9

TAMAKI'S SUNNY SLOPES.

RAILWAY OPENS UP ISTHMUS. One of the most beautiful views of the Auckland countryside is that from the top of Mount Wellington. As you look down on that fine sweep of fields that elope towards the Tamaki River and the Hauraki Gulf, and note the charming combination of land and water views, you realise how the isthmus on which Auckland stands got its Maori name of Tamaki makau rau C'Tamaki of the hundred lovers"). Was it any wonder that every one of the hills that stud the strip of land held in the arms of Waitemata and Manukau was an impregnable fortress, strong as the castles of the barons in Norman England?

We no longer fight with taiaha and mere for the rich volcanic soil of which such a large part of the isthmus is formed; to-day we contend in the auction room for the coveted acres.

For many years the beautiful green fields that stretch from Mount Wellington out to the east were very little known, because although they were within a stone-throw of the city they were not easily accessible owing to the fact that no main roads led through the neighbourhood. Then the motor car opened up the country to many city folks, and now comes the railway, which will bring all this area within half an hour of the city. If some of the old farmers who used to plough these fertile acres could return when the first express train flashes through they would rub their eves.

A pleasant part of this locality ia what in the Old Country would be called the "downs," selected by Captain Hobson, our first Governor, for his farm. "Hobson Park" it was called when it became the model farm of Messrs. J. Court, Ltd., and now that the firm has cut it up for "closer settlement" under the name of the "Tamaki Heights Garden Suburb," there is sure to be much competition. It eeems impossible that such a large area should remain green fields for so many years, but the railway is going to alter all that, and the business man will be able to take his morning dip in the Tamaki and be at business by nine o'clock. Even the far-seeing Captain Hobaon, when he picked out these sunny slopes for his farm, could hardly have foreseen that.