PROGRESSIVE KAWHIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 138, 13 June 1929, Page 11

PROGRESSIVE KAWHIA.

COUNTY WITH BRIGHT FUTURE

ABANDONED LAND RESUMED.

'RINGED BY NATIVE LANDS,

Considering that all Kawhia's trade comes to Auckland, it is surprising how little Aucklanders know about this progressive part of the province. There-is some very interesting information about

the district in the annual report of the

county clerk to the county council. It goes outside the usual cut and dried affair, and gives a good idea of the way this Cinderella of the province is coming to the front. Three years ago; when he took office, the clerk reminds the council, the prospects of the county were'anything but bright. "The future seemed to hold no good prospects. The rate book showed an alarming amount of unpaid rates and I soon learned that they were uncollectable. Abandoned farms or settlers just hanging on were

i'ii.every riding and I had more than once

j'td 'inform the council that the financial ■ position was causing, me the greatest concern. This county was opened up some 29 years ago under what appeared the brightest prospects and money was poured into it. All one had to do was to burn off the bush, sow grass and collect one's cheque for butterfat or wool. And for a year or two while the effects of the. burns lasted in the soil it was so.

Smaller Farms. "Then on top of over-capitalisation of the land came the war, so called deterioration, fall in prices of produce, lack of capital and inability to finance and lack of our present knowledge how to treat the land. The individual areas held were too big. Now in smaller areas and with knowledge how to treat the land, procurable at fair prices, practically every abandoned farm in the county has been taken up. Within the last week or two I have been advised of four such areas'and last week I issued four certificates to enable the purchase of native lands to be completed. The iuetalled north and south main highways connect the harbour with the Main Trunk railway. I am - satisfied that, given reasonable stability in prices for its output, and the success of the only policy that seems practicable for the county, no district of its class in New Zealand has a brighter future than Kawhia. County."

Profitable Dairying. Kawhia suffers from the native land problem. A map accompanying the reports shows that settlers' holdings are surrounded by these unused areas. "The land," says the report, "is eminently | suitable for early settlement. On similar "country, a settler who paid too much in £4 10/ an acre expects this ? year to take aver £20 a cow from 30 cows, none of which ■ are pedigree stock, and similar instances abound. This country responds in-a remarkable degree to topdressing and hard work. There are very few frosts aiid practically no fog. Stock from the county gets better prices and is more asked for than ;much. local stock in the Waika'tp or the King Country. .

V Noxious Weeds. . -x : ,':At present the lands I refer to are not-farmed—the natives are not here to do it—ahdthese lands are a standing menace in respect of noxious weeds to the whole -county--, : Their settlement would solve- the. .question of increased supplies->;foi? another, co-opdrative dairy company in the. Qounty., It.looks as if the Government might do" something if .the case is properly put before it. But time is -the essence of the contract. 'Do it now.' It's up to the .Goyernment to give the surdy pioneers of this county a fighting chance. Good men can do as well here on the land as on land ten times its value elsewhere, but they must come to the backblocks, and if they do, they deserve all they make."