PUMICE LANDS.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 293, 11 December 1929, Page 27

PUMICE LANDS.

COST OF BREAKING IN. REPOROA'S EXPERIENCE. WHY VALUES WERE WRITTEN DOWN. DECEPTIVE SWAMP. No. 11. "■■: [■: When one reads a pamphlet on the theory of bringing in pumice country it sounds quite simple, but. after you have interviewed a number of these Reporoa men you realise that theory and practice are two very different things. "You want a good bit of capital, a good bit of strength, and a good bit of common sense to make a 'do' of pumice i country," said a Reporoa settler. He pointed out that pumice land would certainly grow grass —but at a price. He instanced several settlers who had to sow three, and even four times, before they got what they could call a grass paddock. In theory you planted turnips the first year and grass the next, "and there's your farm," but the Reporoa men had had bitter experience that there was many a slip between the ploughing and the sward. He pointed out that practical experience had proved that many of the statements of the theorists as to the cheap rate at which the pumice country could be brought in were quite erroneous. The trouble was that a man beginning without much capital stood to lose his all if he had a run of bad luck at the start. That had actually happened to men on Reporoa; they had toiled their hearts out, and in the end had to walk off, leave several years of labour behind them, and go somewhere else to make a fresh start.

Settlement to-day must proceed on lines different from those under which the ', Dominion was colonised. A man will-no longer submit to bury his family and struggle along from acre to acre, from cow to cow. To-day farming is more of a science; the land has to be brought in quicker; operations are with machinery instead of by hand; more capital is required; and a man will -not submit to the slavery •of the life ..unless he can see some reasonable pros;jpect': of -'daylight "for himself, or more particularly for hi 3 family, who have to share the hardships whether they are "willing or not. • •

Drastic Writing Down. A good deal has been .heard of late concerning the drastic writing down of the value of the Reporoa sections. A visit : to the settlement would convince the most suspicious that something had to be done. Seventeen men do not walk off a settlement out of pique. To give a concrete example of what has happened at Reporoa. One man, a real -'slogger," bad a swamp section. Swamp land is always considered the pick of the basket. He started in, put up a house, etc., and got together a herd. In addition to his own hard work and that of his wife he put in £1200 in hard cash— their joint savings. Unfortunately that swamp does not behave like other; swamps. At present it is not possible to drain it, owing to the lie of the land —a fact which was realised after the; drains had been put in. Even in sum-' mer the level of the water in the drains is very near the top; while in wintar the place is often flooded.

The farmer got rheumatism, the cows got sick, and it looked like the end of the section and the settler as well, bnt the Government, knowing he was a "tryer," shifted him on to higher ground., pumice land, and to-day he has shown what he can do. His swamp section is to-day valued at fl an acre, and he keeps it for winter feeding, and any man who would suggest that it is worth more should go up and have a try at it. The rushes persist in springing up as though by magic, the place is generally bogged in the winter, it is full of rubbishy feed in the summer, and to crown all the water is so full of alum as to be repulsive to the palate. Another, settler nearby had a Bomewhat similar experience of the swamp. Naturally he thought it would be his best proposition, and concentrated "on it rather than on the. .pumice land, adjoining. To-day his swamp is just, as r tshy as that of the other settler, and after all it was the pumice that gave him the' best results. In passing it may be mentioned that this is the swamp where a former Minister of Lands strongly advised a settler to get to work and cut the rushes with a spade. The joke still raises a laugh in Reporoa. .. . Hard Winters. Apart from the initial difficulty of turning pumice land into pasture, the Reporoa settlers have other disabilities. In summer they are often short of water for the stock, as owing to the quicksand nature of the subsoil it is impossible to sink wells more than fourteen feet deep, and even pipe-wells choke up. Feed is so scarce in the winter than a man is not able to winter enough stock to take advantage of the gr<*at rush of feed which comes in with the spring.

Owing to the rigorous climate the farmer is confined to oats and turnips for winter supplementary feeding, and turnips are a problematical crop at that. So severe is the winter, no doubt owing to the fact that the valley is exposed to the cold south and shut in on the other three sides, that fruit very seldom ripens. You will see a large plum tree which has never yet fruited, and an apple tree with a couple of wizzened embryo fruits the size of a peanut. This absence of fruit is due to yet another disability which this district suffers, namely, summer frosts. To have the crops cut down in January, when the rest of the island is sweltering in summer heat, is not at all unusual in Reporor. (To be continued.) - -