COUNTRYSIDE WANDERINGS.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14029, 28 April 1911, Page 9

COUNTRYSIDE WANDERINGS.

IN AND AROUND "THE LAKE" DISTRICT. THE SPRINGS, LINCOLN AND TAI TAPU. A FINE FARMING COUNTRY. THE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. LAKE ELLESMERE AND ITS PROBLEMS. HOW IT WAS FORMED AND HOW IT !. \S BEEN DRAINED.

THE SPRINGS, LINCOLN. TAI TAPU, ETC.. DISTRICTS. Owing to its comparatively close proximity to Christchurch. the early settlers in Canterbury soon turned their attention to that splendidly fertile stretch ol country which may be roughly defined as lying north of the river Selwyn, east ol the present main south railway line, and which is bounded on the east by the winding line of the Port Hills and on the south by Lake Ellesmere. IL is not very easy to get an accurate estimate of the area of land enclosed within the above-named boundaries, as the coast line, so to speak, is so very irregular, but it is safe to put it down as somewhere in the neighbourhood of 180 square miles or about 120,01X1 acres. Tho quality of the land within tho limits mentioned varies very considerably and ranges from the light, strong soils, which may be found about the Rolleston and Burnham districts, and in the wide strip that runs past Prebbleton and marks the ancient bed of the Waimakariri river, to the richer and drained swamps and most fertile loams which have proved time aud time again capable of growing to perfection all the crops of the temperate zone. Then, again, there is a good deal of land round about Lake Ellesmere, to which tho comprehensive namo of tho "Lake Flats" has been given, that hardly comes into either class. It has a character entirely its own, and is practically solely adapted for grazing purposes, being subject to inundation to a certain extent. In the early days a great deal of this particular land," might moro aptly come under tho heading of "water," but extensive drainago operations, which will bo briefly touched upon later, have rendered it much easier to deal with and safer to stock. _ As was tho case practically all over Canterbury the first people to push out into what were then the backblocks, wero the men who took up large areas of land as pastoral properties pure and simple, and the district wo aro considering was divided up into just two or threo great runs. It must not bo forgotten that in the early days, tho area of tho swamps was very great; and so bad were they in places that not only wero they absolutely useless for carrying even cattle, but competent judges declared that never would they bn drained! When Messrs FitzGerald and Cox, who had the great Springs run, went out there in the middle of the 'fifties, the aspect of tho country would make tho present-day agriculturist stare. I no iiighwavs—where any existed at all — were mere tracks made by the passage of horse?, and occasional drays or waggons, and wero almost impassable, it not actually dangerous; consequently to get anywhere in wet weather tho traveller had sometimes to make big detours, circling to the west so as to get the firmer land of tho stony plains under his horse's feet. Then ho watched his and, as the swamps usually ran in strips, east and west, he could generally pitch upon a drier patch and ride down it to whore he wanted to go. One of the worst of these swamns went from a milo or so west of Spnngston right down over the present site of the township towards Lincoln, and extended southwards to the banks of the Selwyn river. This was a particularly deep and treacherous morass, quite as bad ns tho quagmires in the Ellesmere district south of the Selwyn, in which a waggon and team could be quite comfortably accommodated. Besides this there* were various other patches of swamps and all about Halswell and Greenpark and Tai Tapu the same state of affairs existed. CLOSER SETTLEMENT. The era of the runholder soon nassed, and the smaller men swarmed out over tho land, eager to take up land and settle. In some cases the squatters managed to take advantage of their pre-emptive rights to acquire as freehold part of their holdings, but money was scarce in those days and financial accommodation was not as it is nowadays, consequently a number had no option but to let large tracts of their land go. In a way it) was just as well that things came about as they did, for it is certain, had the land remained in the original large blocks, progress would have been sadly retarded. All the run-holders could do with the land was to stock it with cattle, and not many of these; they certainly made cheese, which was taken to Christchurch and sold, partly for local consumption and partly for export to other parts of the Dominion, but very tittle was done in the way of agriculture. Then came the pioneers of the plough in the early sixties, m Messr W. Prebble, E. P. Prebble, 1). Prebble. A. Davison, Ladbrook, H. White." the Murray brothers, and others being some of the very first. Tho new-comers started goiug into the district in the late 'fifties and during 1861 and for some years afterwards, settlement went on apace, the townships gradually became more than a few survey pegs driven into the ground. _ This particular district is quite, rich in small townships, quite a number or which are named after the first settlers in the locality. following down the main trunk railway we pass Templeton. brought into prominence from the fact that the great Islington freezing works of the Christchurch Meat Company are situated there; then then) are tho townships of Weedons. Rolleston, Burnham and Ellesmere. It we prefer to journey out by tiie qtiaintlv and suggestively-named AN a torholes road, we skirt the fringe of the Prebblru.u township and pass through Broadfieids. where the old disused hostelry named 'The Whoatsheaf stifl stands, if on the. other hand we choose to follow the line of the Christchurch-Southbridge-Little River railway, which branches off at Lincoln, we touch at Prebbleton, Ladbrooks. Lincoln and Springston, or, turning off at Lincoln we reach Greenpark and Tat J"P U - There is a certain sameness in all New Zealand country townships; the settlers round about each, havo usually pretty well the same needs, and the demands being thus constant, the methods ot supply are also much the same. Consequently one finds the store, the blacksmith's "shop, the lrotel, and perhaps other business places at each, and there, is generally a complement of churches

and schools, fully adequate for the needs of ihe country-folk of tho district. THE DAIRYING INDUSTRY. N'cnrly all the townships', with the exception perhaps, ot one or two situated on the light, stony plain intersected by the main line, aro tho centres of splendid agricultural and dairying country. Generally speaking, in tho district we are considering, the two forms ot making a living off the- land go hand-in-hand.~ Creameries, belonging to the systems of the Central Dairy Co., at Addington and to tho older established Tai Tapu Dairy Co. at Tai Tapu are dotted about within handy distance ot each other, and .are well patronised by tho dairy farmers. Actually dairying was the first rural industry taken up, nearly all the early settlers being more or less adept at making choose and butter, which were disposed of in Christchurch. "When agriculture began to flourish in the late 'sixties and during tho 'seventies, and when the swamps and wet land were gradually drained, dairying became- rather unpopular, as it was found that a better return could bo got from wheat and other cereals; but the inauguration of the co-operative system of butter and cheese-making that took place about twenty years ago ■put a very different complexion on the dairying industry. Farmers soon found out that the returns from tho cow wero generally Larger, and decidedly moro certain, than returns from graingrowing, so it is small wonder that they wont in for it, heart and soul, in spito of the drudgery—which tho modern milking machine has rendered almost a negligible quantity. There is little doubt that tho prosperity of tho industry had a direct effect upon the prico of land, which has steadily risen in value, and in a groat many localities £30, £35, £40, and up to £50 an acre is paid, without a murmur, for good dairy farms. The owners make a good Irving, too, and marry- a motorcar has, figuratively speaking, been milked from her Majesty the cow! The whole district is, to put it broadly, dependent upon agTiculturo and its attendant industries. In the early days, much of the land was dotted with flaxmills for the dressing of tho fibre, but now that ora has passed, and the mills have vanished with tho material they handled. With regard to the start of the Tai Tapu Dairy Factory, it may be of interest to stato that this factory was the second to bo established in Canterbury, the tirst being at" Seffson. The prime movers in tho scheme were Messrs H. E. Peryman, R. Eainey, R. Forbes, F. Sponeer, I. Champion, J. Heinzmann, J. Mangles, T. Leatham. aud T. Quayle. Tho first named has been cltairmnn of the company for a number of years, and still holds that position. The company celebrated its "coming of age" in 1909, and the strides the dairy industry has taken can he realised when the following figures aro read: —The first year's bal-ance-sheet showed that payments to suppliers totalled £2400; in tho 1903-fl season this had risen to £26,100. The value of last season's output would 1* about £34,059. Though perhaps, the early" Road Boards of this large district did not have quite so bad an area of country to deal with as did the Ellesmere. people, yet they had quite enough to keep them busy, and no ono who now travels over the hard highways could realise that, comparatively speaking, a few years ago, where they now drive in comfort, was perhaps an all but unfathomable bog; as in Ellesmere, the chief works the Road Boards had to carry out were the formation and making of roads and the draining of swamps. Tho Springs Road Board, which, like all the rest in the district, has now taken urion itself the more dignified title of "County Council/ was ono of the very earliest to bo formed. This took place about 1862, the first chairman being Mr R. Bethell, and the members of tho Board were Messrs Ffitch, Roberts, Watson and Miles. Subsequent chairmen were Messrs C. Bourne, Goodwin, Ranger, A. P. O'Callaghan, J. Gammack, C. J. Herriek, J. A. Pannett, and J. Wolfe, the last-named gentleman being chairman for the past twenty years or so. The other local bodies, such as tho Lincoln. Halswell, Tai Tapu, and Spreydon divisions, have either amalgamated into counties or been formed into counties with their ancient boundaries, and Spreydon has just blossomed forth as a borough. A UNIQUE INSTITUTION. Standing in the main road at Lincoln township and looking in a southwesterly direction, the thick plantations around the homestead and buildings oi the Canterbury Agricultural College may be seen about threequarters of a milo, to a mile, away,and the red brick gables of this fine pile of buildings can be discerned through the green .screen, forming a well-known landmark in trio district. This splendid institution, which has justly uecomo celebrated throughout the Dominion, stands to-day as a lasting memorial to the wisdom and forethought of those men who wero at the head of affairs in the early days of government, and though at the timei the whole scheme may have seemed rather far-fetched, in view of the undeveloped state of agricultural matters at the time of its inception, yet tho expenditure has since been proved to be'fully justified, and there is no doubt that both directly and indirectly tho benefit to the country has been great. Ono of the last acts of theOld Provincial Government of Canterbury was to set aside an rrea of country aggregating approximately 100,000 acres, as an endowment for an Agricultural College, this being done during the superintendentshm of the late Mr Wm. Kolleston, and" a committee of gentlemen well acquainted with land and farming waX elected to inspect a suitable .site for the proposed institution. After a considerable area of land had been looked at, the committee's choice ultimately fell upon the line block of land adjacent to tho .Lincoln township, , and an area of about 800 acres wiw acquired for a College farm. It was a splendid piece of country, the bulk of it being land of the best agricultural character, and tho balance ranging from heavy clays to soil of a loamy nature. A start was made with tho building of the College about 1880, and a couple of years later

the opening ceremony was performed. The college" is built of red brick, faced with Oauinru stone, and is in the Tudor style; it is spacious and well designed," and the care that has been lavished upon the grounds aud surroundings has resulted in the »>laco presenting a very picturesque and wellkept appearance. The farm buildings are handy to the College proper, nnd generally" speaking, are adequate for the working needs of the farm. As time goes on alterations and additions are continually being made to the farm steading, and the place is kept up-to-date. TJie present scheme which is being considered by the Board of Governors, of installing electric light and power throughout the whole place, is a big thing, but the convenience and safety ol this form of power and illumination is a strong argument in its favour. In the early days of its existence the College was controlled by < tho Governors of Canterbury College, but eventually the administration was put into the hands of a separate Board of Governors, and for many years the Hon. E. C. .1. Stevens. M L C has carried out the duties of chairman of this body. The first director of the institution was Mr NY. Ivev. and on his rather sudden decease, Mr G. Gray, F.('.•->., was appointed director pro. tern. As may be imagined, changes in the professorial staff of the College have been fairly frequent, but Mr Gray, the lecturer on chemistry. hn>becn on the staff almost since the College started. Mr John Bayne was the successor to Mr NY. Ivev, and guide:! (he destinies of the College students until the advent of Mr NY. l.owrie, who came over from South Australia, where he held an important position under the Government of that State. Mr liowrie trained a deservedly high reputation during his management o! the College, which flourished exceedingly; he did not confine his work to the students entirely, but foregathered with the farmers of the district, giving them much valuable instruction, both I by example and precept. On his leaving again for Australia to direct matters agricultural in the western portion I of that continent, the vacant position of director was taken by Mr R. E. Alexander, the present holder of the oost. A very large addition to the College property was made about, eighteen months nsio, when farms aggregating about. 1500 acres were purchased. These nlaces are not in the same locality" as the old farm, but are situated on the lighter lands farther over towards tho main south line, to the west of Springston township. The land of the new farms varies from good light loam to rather poor stony country, with a thin coating of soil over the usual shingle subsoil. These new acquisitions to the College are distinctly valuable, for, firstly, they give the sheep kept on the place a welcome and beneficial run off on to drier pasture, and, secondly, the working of this class of land, which is totally different from that of the home farm, is good instruction for the students, many of whom may, from various reasons, be obliged to go on to tho poorer class of land to earn their bread and butter. At ono time there was no doubt'that many farmers, who delighted to style themselves "practical" men, did not think much of the College as a place for the budding agriculturist to learn his business, but time and hard facts have changed all that, and everyone who knows anything about the matter can vouch for tho College as a place where a thoroughly ; sound, practical, and comprehensive ' course of education in matters agricultural can be obtained by tho student who really wishes to learn. It is not claimed that when a student leaves tho institution he has nothing to learn, for most observant and intelligent farmers will tell you that they are learning every day, but. at least the student is sent away with a sound knowledge of the fundamentals of farming, both in theory and practice. The best proof of the popularity of the College is the fact that for some, years now it has "been full to overflowing, and a far greater number of would-be students apply for entrance than can possibly be given accommodation. At the present time no applicant, can hope to get into residence until the year 1913, and it would certainly be good news to many to 3near that it had been decided to increase tho accommodation, so that a hundred, instead of fifty, students could be taken. WAIHORA AND ITS PROBLEMS. Away south of the Springs County, and somewhere about six miles from tho township of Lincoln, stretches that vast expanse of water that is named "Waihora by the Maoris and Lako Ellesmere by tho white men. Blue and mysterious it runs, with an horizon almost like that of the ocean, for a distance of about fifteen miles at its greatest length, with a mean width of between four or five miles, thus covering an extent of, approximately, forty thousand acres. Generally- speaking, the lake is very shallow, and a man may wade out for two or threo hundred yards from the margin, and then the water will only reach to about his knees. Here and there are deeper spots, and of course where the rivers, big and little, run into the lake., they havo usually scoured out channels by tho outrush of their waters that materially deepen the lako bed in their vicinity. NVaihora must have been a sight, indeed, before the time of tho pakeha; the broad bosom of its placid waters would havo been black with countless duck and aquatic birds of all descriptions, on the marshy foreshores the brightly-plumed pukoko stalked, and away back in tho swamps the formidable and bristly "Captain Cooker" was lord. For a good long time after the advent of the white man a state of such as has been described, reigned, but the handy close-shooting breech-loader, in combination with cylinder decoys, have accounted for many thousands of "Waihora's harmless inhabitants. T>raiiiago has obliterated the swamps, and nowadays, in spite of protective legislation, the sportsman has to make quite elaborate preparations, if his expedition to the lake is to result in a full game bag. DRAINAGE SCHEMES. There is another aspect of Lake Ellesmere, however, that in considerably moro important than whether or no it is to remain a happy hunting ground for devotees of the 12-bore, and that is whether it will ever bo possible to prevent its waters from periodically flooding many ureas of land that might otherwise be brought into cultivation. Tho consideration of this question has been undertaken by many well-known engineers and surveyors who have inspected it, and reported on it with, it must be confessed, very little result. Their schemes for providing a permanently low level to the lake—it was never intended to drain it, for reasons which will be explained later on—varied in price from a sum that was reasonable (about £5000), to a figure that touched three-quarters of a million sterling. Altogether there' were eight or nine schemes brought forward, tho most costly and complicated being ono which provided for a tunnel to he cut through part of the Peninsula, thus providing an outlet for the waters of the lake that would not be liable to be blocked with shingle. Another expensive idea was to make a sort of canal or dram through the Halswell to Sumner. All sorts and conditions of groins, jetties, breakwaters, culverts, were, of course, proposed, as well as a set of huge iron pipes, to be laid with one end in the lako and the other in the ocean, when it was expected that they would act a s syphons, and m drain \Vaihora automatically. The rea.son that so much* attention has been paid to what may be called the draining of Lake Ellesmere is of

course the great valuo of th© lands around and back from its shores. If these lands can be permanently freed from any chance of flooding then theywould naturally be of very ranch' greater worth than if they were subject to periodical or occasional floods. Lake EUesmore being such a shallow sheet of water and the lands adjacent being also about the same level, a very, sliitht rise iv the level of the lake means the flooding of a very largo tract of In ml—-but before enlarging on this subject it may be as well to take a more general survey of the question and its difficulties. HOW THE LAKE~WAS FORMED. Tt is generally sxipposed that Lake Ellesmere is a mere accumulation of water which, having no ouUot, collects in the lowest ground and then covers a lame area of fertile land, which ought to be reclaimed for agricnltnral purposes and for human habitation. As a matter of fact, with tho exception of eight or nine thousand acres, it never has been land, but sea. It » thought that in some remote period both tho Hakaia and the NVaimakariri discharged their waters and gravel into this bay (os it was then), which tliey wore gradually filling up and turning into land, but having changed their courses, tho Rakaia to the south and the NVaimakariri to the north, their unfinished work remained an open estuary, with sandbanks dry at low water. Tho Selwyn, Halswell," and Irwell rivers _ and numerous creeks, still drained into this estuary, which is the outfall for about .'WO square miles of hill country and 300 square miles of plains, besides which it re wived the water from abundant springs and the underground contribution of the Hakaia and NVaiinakariri. During the period when the large rivers had their outfall into the estnary, the shingle brought up from tho sooth along the coast by the sea was carried along, below low water mark, to the Peninsula, where it was deposited and formed a boulder bank, which gradually extended southwards until it closed nearly the whole frontage of tho estuary. It appears from tho surveys that have been made that tho mouth of the estuary was still about a mile wide when the rivers altered their courses, which still further decreased the force of the outfall that kept tho mouth clear, and very gradually the. whole of tho seaward side of the estuarybecame closed with the bank of shingle that still remains there to this day. At the remote period when these curious changes were taking place, the plains must have been covered with timber, for it was brought down by the rivers • and deposited in tho south-east corner of tho estuary, but on the Hakaia altering its course, this drift timber was carried out to sea, washed up the coast and thrown up along low water mark, where it materially assisted in closing up the estuary, and contribirfod to the formation of a strong barrier, capable of confining the waters of the Selwyn to the lake, as the estuary then became. Thus tho river's waters rose and spread, and formed the wide expanse of waters named NVaihora by tho Maoris, though these processes took place long before there was any settlement of Maoris at Taumutu, as the pa at the outlet is called. Probably for centuries th© waters of the lake stood at a height "that was fairly constant aud any overflow would pass away by tho Little Rakaia. without rising high enough to burst through the strong lino of shingle and sand When the Maoris did settle at Taumutu they cut through tho gravel spit and let the pent up waters .of the lake out, laying hare a great portion or the bed of tho old estuary. They ppntinned tin's practice whenever the lako was high, and gathered tons upon tons . of eels on the mud flats, until the Akaroa nntiVes came down and wiped; them out. Then there was no one reft to let out the lake, and it gradually rose until about tho year 1829 it washed over the bank to seaward, and carried away iarge stretches of Band bills, which have never re-formed. Another lot of Maoris then took up residence in tho locality, and since tho arrival of tho Canterbury colonists it is known that they.let it out in 1852, »54, '66, '68, 1861. '63, '65, and '67, which was tho last time they carried out tho operation. In 1868 it was let out by aMr Chapman, and since then the white men have periodically attended to it. The lake Hate were very early used by tho colonists for grazing cattle and sheep upon, but it was always an un- , certain sort of business; a strong wind from tho north or south-west affects these flats by raking the waters, by . pressure, and this occasional flooding spoils a great deal of what would other- ; wise be fairly good pasturage. The problem that those'woo aimed to keep th© lake at its lowest level had to * face was not an easy one. Th© only, possible place where the waters could be taken was the sea, and t3ie lake levßt was so nearly tho same level as the sea that it would be only possible to take a certain amount of the waters away. Something had to be done, however, for not only did the lake when it was hi©h flood about an extra 35,000 acres of tho. flato, but it backed up the rivers and creeks, and caused them to flood the country still further back. It m esti-, ~ mated that the daily influx of water into Lake Ellesmere is about fifty-four million cubic feet, and to carry this off it meant unaking' a mouth as big asthat of the Opihi River. This, o£ ■ course, was beyond hope, as the thundering seas carrying thousands of ton§ of shingle would soon block up any attempt at a permanent outlet through the shingle bank; consequently, toe. next best thing was to attempt the construction of some kind of a culvert that could lie opened whenever it was necessary to let off the surplus wafer and kef)) the lake within reasonable bounds. Various methods were tried, and a considerable quantity of money was spent in one way and. another, and finally' Mr. J. Pannott, tho chairman of tho KHesmere Lands Drainage Board, took tho matter up, and after many set-backs and reverses, at last contrived to invent such a modification of the then existing works, carried out by Mr Dobson, as have since proved quite successful in keeping the lako from ever getting beyond a certain level.