LAND DEVELOPMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 195, 19 August 1930, Page 8

LAND DEVELOPMENT.

PRISON WORKERS' EFFORTS. RESULTS IN AUCKLAND PROVINCE. '■ . GOOD- BUTTERFAT RETURNS. (By Telegraph.—-Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Monday. The Prisons Department has in hand a large scheme of pumice land development, and its annual report states tliat at Hautu' and Rangipo, near, Tokaanu, the. scheme of developing an area of 13,500 acres .continues actively pursued with gratifying results. Slightly over 3000 acres of what was hitherto absolutely, waste country . have s been cleared,, and the total area in grass at March-31, 1030, was 2960 acres..

A recent geologicalsurvey of the district and ah analysis of soils by officers of the " Scientific 'and - Industrial - Ee : search Department.justify the Department's optimism as to eventual: success, as these -reveal that the peculiar fertility and; freedom from bush sickness of the Hautu area is due to a volcanic deposit of andesite ash, which shows high iron, lime and magnesia content, coupled with adequate' rainfall. Owing .'to the ' necessity for providing hay; ensilage and root crops for winter feed. 1 slightly larger areas' f than ' were originally contemplated will be required when' the land, is ultimately subdivided for settlement at Waikeria, in the Waikato district.' \

• Since a portion of the mental hospital estate was taken over a few' years ago the Department has .been stocking up gradually in cattle and sheep: As paddocks are being brought into cultivation the of three dairies continues .to increase' year by 'year. 'For the year ended March 31 the total production was -substantially higher than in the year preceding, but in value .was; approximately the same, duo to the collapse of,"the market. The average butterfat returns for the 1925-21) season, while not quite as high as the best season (1927-28), was particularly'good,, mid continues to be well above the average of the registered herds in the district.