THE CASHMERE HILLS SETTLEMENT.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 11871, 19 April 1904, Page 6

THE CASHMERE HILLS SETTLEMENT.

The report published in this issue of the first public meeting of residents on the Port Hills draws attention to the remarkable change that has come over tile Christdiureh face of the hills during the la it few years. It seems only yesterday that the principal residents there were sheep and rabbits, when no human habitation met the eye, after the Convalescent Home was passed, until Governors Bay was reached. Now the first mile of the upward road is as closely populated as many a suburban rood, and though at present the houses do not extend very far back, the multiplication of roads, which will no doubt come about before long, will inevitably lead to further development of settlement. For the town dweller, who regards the hills as the best ground for a good walk that the district affords, their changed condition is hardly a matter for congratulation, for where be was once free to roam for miles unchecked by paling and barbed wire fences, he is now confined, on the lower slopes at least, to the high road. He must console himself aa best he "may with the freedom still obtainable us lie mounts higher towards the pass. It ia curious that so long an interval ensued after the erection of the Convalescent Home before private houses began to dot the hillside. One would have thought that the lead thus given would have been followed immediately; that people would have recognised at once the advantages of living above the level plain. But it was not until Mr T. E. Taylor, with commendable enterprise, bad led the way, and the tramway woe extended to the foot of the hills, thus ensuring better means of communication, that the bare expanse of the waving tussock began to give -way to the encroachments of the builders. And now the Cashmere Hills settlers, with confidence born of their increasing numbers, are set upon building a church and a school, and intend to devote the balance of their energy towards stirring the Heathcote Road Board : into improving the road. We should have thought it was rather early in the history of the settlement to establish a church for one particular body, but the school is an admitted necessity, and its erection would probably do more than anything else—short o£ a cable or electric tramway service—to popularise residence on the hills. The.future of the settlement is, however, already assured, and one may safely predict that a generation hence its area will be widely extended, especially if the pioneers of to-day continue to display the enterprise of which they have just given a proof.