WEALTH OF MARLBOROUGH

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21391, 6 February 1935, Page 16

WEALTH OF MARLBOROUGH

Wide Variety of Products STOCK, CROPS, TIMBER, AND FISH-* The great variety of the resources of the Marlborough district is not readily realised by the casual visitor. He is incFned to think of Marlborough only as the district which contains the sounds, which have so frequently been brought under his notice as a tourist resort. Yet to Marlborough other things bring far more wealth than the tourist attractions of the sounds—the sheep of its hill pastures, the wheat, oats, barley, peas, lucerne, and clover of its plain and coastal agricultural area, the dairies of its valleys, the timber of its forests, the gold of its mines, and the fish of its coasts.

The total area of the Marlborough district is about 4000 square miles, the largest block of agricultural land being the Wairau plain, comprising 65,000 acres of specially rich and fertile soil. The plain is divided into comparatively small holdings, the average yield an acre of the various crops being:—Wheat, 30 bushels; oats and barley, 35 bushels; peas, 30 bushels; potatoes, 10 tons. The barley and pea growing industries of Marlborough have brought a great deal of wealth into the district, the peas being grown for English and foreign markets, where they are preferred because of their high germination percentage, arid their good colour. Small Seeds and Sheep The growing of small seeds has in recent years become one of the most important industries of the province. Each year large areas of all kinds of clover are harvested for seed, while a great deal of lucerne is also grown for seed. Marlborough lucerne is. famous for its quality, and is claimed to have a higher germinating power than seed grown anywhere else in New Zealand. Sheep farming remains the staple industry of the district, which has a sheep population of more than 1,000,000. About 7,250,0001b of wool and 100,000 carcases of mutton are exported each year. Marlborough, more than any other province of New Zealand, is the home of the merino sheep. Its merino studs arc famous and its flocks have produced some of the highest-priced wool in the Dominion. The half-bred flocks of the district are also famous. Dairy farming in the district is limited to the Pelorus valley and the areas immediately surrounding Blenheim and Kaikoura. Dairy factories are situated at Rai Valley, Canvastown, The Grove, Tuamarina, Hapuku, Kaikoura and Blenheim. Fruit fanning is also successfully carried on, although not extensively, and small areas have been planted with tobacco. Timber Resources The district has still tremendous resources of timber, and the forests of the upper Pelorus area comprise about 180,000 acres. In normal time about 500,000 feet of timber were brought to Blenheim each week, while there was also an export to Nelson. The abundant fishing grounds off the coast of Marlborough provide the district with another industry. Fish caught in the sounds are sent to the Wellington market, while large quantities are sent from thcKaikoura waters to Christchurch. Whaling is still continued in Tory Channel, at Te Awaiti, where the first whaling station was established 108 years ago.

A ROMANTIC HISTORY

THE DEVELOPMENT 0$ MARLBOROUGH . FIRST SETTLEMENT DATES; FROM 1827 \ The Marlborough district has a mora romantic history than most parts ot New Zealand. Its coasts were the scena of the early whaling exploits of Guard and Barrett, the terrible "Wairau massacre happened within a few miles of Blenheim, and in later years it 'saw the gold rushes which gave places like Canvastown a temporary population of more than 2000. Because the whalers' shore stations became permanent establishments Marlborough can claim to be the first part of the South Island to receive any permanent settlement of Europeans, although the Wairau plain was not actually settled until 1848. The first part of the South Island of New Zealand seen by Captain Cook was near Pelorus Sound, on January 14, 1770. The next morning he entered the bay which he called Queen Charlotte Sound and discovered Ship Cove, which he used as a base for his later expeditions. Although the sounds were subsequently visited by other early voyagers, the first Europeans to establish settlements in Marlborough; were the whalers, under Captain Guard, who built their first huts ashof ft at Te Awaiti in May, 1827. A yea*» later Guard brought his young wife \o; his shore whaling station, and she was the first white woman to live in Ihe South Island. The Whaling Camps Before long other whalers had come to the coast, and Port Underwood became the centre of a new sort of whaling—the crews working from permanent camps on shore, and hunting the whales in their fast boats. The settlement was extensive, and it is notable that it was permanent, for as the whaling industry declined, many of the men remained and their descendants are numerous in Marlborough to-day. In September, 1838, about 100 Europeans were settled at Te Awaiti. The possibiltiies of the Wairau plain as a farming area attracted the attention of Captain John Blenkinsopp in 1830, and he obtained from the Maoris a deed which he thought conveyed it to him. Plans for immediate settlement were disturbed by native outbreaks in other parts of the Dominion, and nothing came of the scheme. An attempt to take possession in June, 1840, also failed, and the party of four men disappeared, although cattle were released. The first mission station in the province was established in December, 1840. The Wairau Massacre Although the New Zealand Company was not sure of its title to the Wairau plain, in April, 1843, surveyors were sent to it from Nelson. This resulted in the massacre, on June 17, 1843, of 22 persons, including Captain Arthur Wakefield, agent for the company at Nelson. The plains were ultimately purchased from the Maoris in March, 1847, although the first settler actually to establish himself on the Marlborough side of the dividing ranges was Mr N. G. Morse, who in 1846 "squatted" on a section at the head of the Wairau valley, which he called Top House. The formal settlement of the Wairau by the company's settlers took place in 1848, the selection of sections being held in March of that year, at Nelson. Certain areas had been taken up unofficially in the preceding year. Sheep were introduced immediately, and wheat crops were sown. The first plough in the district is stated to have been used for the cultivation of potatoes and tobacco. Originally in Nelson Province The Wairau valley was originally constituted a part of Nelson province,-' returning at first one member, and later three members, to the 24 on the Nelson Provincial Council. The agitation for a separate provincial council for Marlborough arose from a feeling that it was neglected, and that too much money was spent in Nelson, for land sales in the Wairau district by 1858 amounted to £157.000, compared with £33,000 in the Nelson district. The new province of Marlborough was accordingly constituted in 1859, and the , first meeting of its council was held in May, 1860. I One of the very first public works I projects to come before the Marl- J borough Provincial Council was the , construction of a railway to connect j Picton and Blenheim. The line was ultimately undertaken under the public works policy of Sir Julius Vogel in 1871, and was completed to Opawa in 1875, and to Blenheim itself in 1880. The provincial council also initiated the flood protection work now controlled by the River Board. Picton was originally intended to be the capital of the province, the site being bought from the Maoris in 1846. At first it was known as Newtown, and those settlers who could not be allotted town sections at Nelson were given them at Newtown, which, however, had only one white settler until 1854. The town was renamed Picton and proclaimed the capital of the province in 1859. Picton thereafter had a series of disappointments: the capital was moved to Blenheim in 1865; the increased population brought to it by gold mining proved to be only temporary, and more recently its hopes of becoming the sea link between tb» main trunk railway systems of the tVfO j islands have come to nothing.