THE EAST COAST RAILWAY ROUTE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 686, 10 December 1909, Page 3

THE EAST COAST RAILWAY ROUTE.

FROM WAIROA TO TINIROTO. A PROLIFIC FRUIT-GROWING DISTRICT. ROADS IN THE BACK-BLOCKS. ■ (Br Malcolm Ross, F.R.G.S.) '. , t"■ ' ~~~. ~ ..'■■■ ■ - ■■■ ... _ L - No, v. ~■■■'■ , .; With Mr. Munro for my guide I left Wairoa on Monday morning for Tiniroto. The Wairoa lands are wonderfully fertilo and.of considerable area. Wairoa, a township of only a thousand inhabitants, has a bright future before it, but it has. got a mad idea into its head that it can mako a harbour by way of the Wairoa River. It is proposed to borrow some ,£78,000 for the work. The good people of Wairoa might as well throw their money into tho sea as endeavour to fight nature with the limited capital upou which they can afford to pay interest. A little further north there is a natural harbour at a place-called Waikokopu, where money might be spent to much greater advantage. However, I suppose Wniroa, like some other New Zealand towns in regard to harbours, will spend its. money in haste and repent-at leisure. As a fruit-growing district, the Wairoa Country cannot be excelled in Now Zealand. Oranges and: lemons .and many other fruits ripen well, and on the runs you often come upon apple trees, -apparently solf-sown, in tho most unexpected places.- Tho trees ■planted in places by the early settlers and the Maoris are, Mr. Munro informed me, healthy to this dajv though now somewhat old. In Wairoa every year there are large quantities of fruit absolutely'rotting on' the ground, while in Wellington wo may be paying sixpence a pound for apples taken all the way: from Tasmania"/or even from California. In future years, when there is railway communication, Wniroa and Gisbome should be able to supply the whole of New Zealand with oranges, lemons, and other fruits. Unlike Central Otago, Ihero is rib need for irrigation.' The. growth of maize on some of tho, river ■ flats'• is simply marvellous. Crops of CO bushels per acre ore obtained, and, as' the; price has been as high as five shillings per bushel, it will be seen that maize must be a profitable crop. At this rate, a farm of two hundred acres sown in maize would produce a gross return of 43000. We,passed one place for which a local butcher was paying a yearly rental of 18s. an acre to his Maori landlord for grazing sheep and cattle; On our right was the Ciydebank Estate, of some 9000 acres, recently taken by the Government for closer settlement. It is suitable for cutting up into farms of about 1000 acres each;; bnt, if the agitation for four or five-hundred-acro farms is acceded,to, the settlement may be a failure. A man must be able to run 1500 sheep to mako a fairly comfortablo living on this land at the price' at which it is available. A Topcworks has recently been started in tho district, and I was told that the flax on some of tho drained swamp land grew with wonderful luxuriance. In , one. place 160 tons of green flax to the acre was , cut, and some of the blades were fourteen feet long. Nine months after this flax was cut some of blades had grown to a length of cloven feet. Quail are becoming numerous in this country; but pheasants, onco plentiful, are scarcer. The weasels came through this country years ago, marching northwards, but they did not stay, and thero aro few now loft. Mr. Munro pointed out to me the hilly country that ho formerly held as a sheep-run.- When ho took up the land-M6OO acres—it carried 350 sheep, and carried them badly. When ho sold out, nineteen years later, tho run was carrying 6000 sheep, and ho would not have sold out, but for the labour trouble. This run is another object-lesson to. the leaseholder. The. "increment" was made by. Mr.. Munro,, and not by the State. But, in any case, the , land is still there,,and tho main thing for New Zealand is to have it producing up to its highest capacity for all time. :,.■'.,■ We now proceeded up a beautiful valley for eighteen miles, the river below \\s on the left. The sight of somo eel-weirs in. the ■ stream started 'a discussion on the . extraordinary habits of these tish. That they go down to the sea in large numbers every year is now nii established fact, and at To Roinga Falls, so the people say, at the right time of tho year, you may seo '.thousands, of young-eels, on their way from; the' coastal spawning, grounds, working their way up over tho wet rocks. ,On a good dealVpf, ihesa Jands',!; noticed, .that Danthoniaj grass "was';geting ; a good "hold.Mr. Muuro's experience,:is that it is ■:».'valuable", grass,:',but not much-good ; 'for .fattening.' . Yon cannot' gefc;gbod ;fat lantbs off; it.'■•'■.lt seems .to come naturally- in thisi country, and when it.comes.it comes to stay.". '

The '' remains of the old fighting "pas" ore still to be seen on. the hills overlooking tho road. To Kooti came into this country, and, on our left, across the river; is the gravo of Captain Hussey, who fell to a Hau-hau bullet. It is fenced in;■ but: no tombstone'marks the spot. Thus does New. Zealand honour its gallant, dead. A little farther up the Valley, is the place where Tβ Kooti stayed all one- winder, and nobody • knew, gomo of tho settlers say that the authorities did not want to catch To Kooti. "What? Catch To Kooti" ah officer of high, rank is said, to hnvo remarked. "Kill the goose'that lays the golden eggs? Oh, no!" ,■■'-.- . . •" -.

At lO.a.m.iMr. Munro left me and returned to AVairon, while Mr. Twigg, one of the Valley settlers, took his place as my guide, -philosopher, and friend. ' - .

Ho told tae there were thousands of acres of this country fit for fattening lambs; but thoro was uo means of,getting the lambs to market until they got a .-railway.'. . Practically all the wethers go off the'natural grasses fattened; but there is a loss of ten per cent, in value in driving these sheep to Gisborno or Napier. . At present, ■• they nearly all- go to' Gisborne. If there were a railway, it would pay to plough a good deal of the land for fattening lambs, and, generally,, the country would carry double the stock'it is now carrying. The RonineyJTiincoln , . cross seems, to hold its place here as farther south. The -Merino appears to be a sheep of the past. It was interesting to learn that Mr...Twigg's . father .was- the first settler to' bring the Eomney sheep to the East Coast. This resulted in a feud witlt his neighbour, who was afraid that' his . Merino flock might be contaminated. - The latter set men along the boundary to keep, back the Eomney invasion, andieven threatened legal proceedings; but in A few years the, Merino was a thing of the past. Wo vere now leaving the Mangapoiki behind us on the right. I was fortunate in meeting on the road one of, the settlers who has been exploiting it, and he assured me that it'was splendid country. On his run the carrying capacity had sheep to the acre, in addition to a fair number of cattle, which were kept on the land. All the sheep were fattened ?t a! i?" , and n0 store shee fl were sold f rom it. At the. present time I befieve .this laud is , the cheapest land in New Zealand, but, unfortunately, a'good'deal of it is.locked up in tho hands of the Maoris, who are not improving it as it should be improved..' As we proceeded up the Talley tho land became more rugged and poorer m quality; but in good hands it ws-s capable of. grazing many sheep and cattle. It is country that needs special treatment, and a sheep-farmer from the south, unless he took the,advice of his more experienced neighbours, might soon lose his capital The fern has to be crushed out by cultle-graz-lng, but even after the land is cleared of fern a watch has to be kept for manuka scrub, which would quickly appear and take possession were it allowed.to. . . ■■■■ -.• > The ■ 'Teßoinga Fall, ,a beautiful sight, claimed our attention as we passed it on the way to Runkituri Station, which -heais some 2G,000 sheep. Near here we saw a" tenm of pack-horses. The roads : aro so bad'that-tho' settlers have to take: their provisions .in and their wool out on pack-horses! Think of this, ye settlers in tho South: Island, with your good roads and-your railways and branch railways! The people in this district are scared of rabbits. They had been seeing rabbits for tho past few months, very much as'the good people of Kclso, in Otago, had been seeing, airships. It appears that someone saw a" cat and said it was a rabbit, and tho story grew liko tho story of-the , three black crows. Tho-rnb. bit question is not a very serious one on the East .Coast, and I question whether rabbits would '.become; the pest in this country thatthoy are in the South Island. On the whole of my journey through_ from Napier to Gisborno, I did not see a:single rabbit, and ;as to their.coming in from the Hawko's Bay district, it-is plain that the Gisborne peoplo havo been needlessly alarmed.' I believe thero are rabbite in i fa places along the line of route nearer Napior, and that one has been trapped across the Waihua : River.; but with ordinary vigilance and care thei pest can easily, be kept in check:- The main danger seems to mo .to be in connection with'tho Maori lands. It is another argument for their closer settlement.- '- , ' ■ : ■Wo had great difficulty,in'getting as far as Ruakituri Station. It was only; tho strength and tho staunchness of Mr. Twigg's horso that did it; but onto, when the gig was up to tho axle-bar, aud we came to a dead stop, I thought it was a case of leaving our vehicle in the sticky mud. At -another place, inio ,wheel went down,aud Hie other, up',''and I was prepared to' jump; for it, but there was no necessity, and."we just "managed to scrape throuKh.-thdUah in.nne. tinrtinulsrlr. VmH ,nin~i

the horse, in life:-struggles got ;]jis nose ,iij(o the niud, and .was nearly suffocated. Wo lunched at the little station-house perched on a small plateau at the foot of some steep but well- , grassed hills, and .wild pig was not.tub least delectable, dish in the menu. It seemed strange to hear the telephone ringing at my car. The manager was sending a mes-sags to a. farmer a few miles farther on to conio along and pilot mo on tho next stage of my journey. My new cicerone-was Mr. Edward Pcnty, a fino stamp of settler, who landed in New Zealand from •Yorkshire 23 years ago. He soon arrived with a wagonette and two staunch horecs. It would have.been better if lie had brought saddle horses, and I should much have preferred it, but he did not know I was a horseman. When we got to. the bad bit of the road we were soon in trouble, but we jnst managed" to'scraps through. Sir. I'enty's remarks on the condition of the road were amusing and graphic. Ho said it was a "bit of a gem,"'but he consoled himself with the well-known fact that horses go a bit freer on the homeward journey. By tho time we had struggled through a few more morasses and had broken a sw;ngiobar, he came to tho conclusion that he would not try to tako the wagonette through the final elough of do-. 'spend, but that ho v;ould unhitch, tho horses and ride one- of them home. I have often wondered since whether Mr. Twigg got out of and whether Mr. l'enty into the Rnakituri Valley that evening.' For myself, I was glad to be at Tiniroto, where I had sjroat difficulty in avoiding, and mortally offended, a good-hearted, but garrulous,' Irishman—who would , insist upon my drinking with him—and was able to sympathise with ■ two young ladies who hod left .their wagonnctto stuck in the mud six .'miles beyond Tiniroto,' and had ridden in on horseback with a sick child who, after being accidentally poisoned, had been .taken all the w:ay to Gisbomo for medical treatment. First a swingle-bar had broken, and been repaired by'a stout sapling cut by some bush-whackers. Then ono trace went, and then the other. Two strong horses could not'shift the axle-deep trap out -of that putty mud, and no it was left behind. The horses were unharnessed. The brother with the sick child rode onej horse, and one of the sisters the second horso into Tiniroto. The second girl walked along tho muddy,road, and when fhe. others had reached the solitary' public-house at cold and cheerless Tiniroto, the brother returned with a horse for the sister who was walking. The child was put to bed, and wf) three, warmed ourselves before a log fire in the bar parlour of the Tiniroto Hotel, while We pretended not to hear the weird and. unparliamentary language that tho. big good-hearted Irishman! who was engaged in that strange ''occupation of "knocking down his ohenue," was using. Much as I like the Irish, I'm afraid I mortally offended this brave fon of. Erin. He made'me feel a. very worm because of my incivility, and I know the young ladies sympathised with him, and not with me, for- he was a generous man—overgenerous perhaps—and they could" not , understiind all his adjectives, which was my one consolation. • .. - . . ..-■■■

Tjniroto is not a prepossessing place. It has one public-house, a store, and n dismal lake, which looks as if it might have eels and frogs in.it. But tastes differ, nnd there'may bo some peodp who can see charm' in Tiniroto. I confess I ani not one of those.-: The very name hns something depressing about it. The famous Sam Lewis, a nuainf London character and money-lender of the,last generation, was once nersuadetl to visit'.Rome: , but within a week lie was back at Monto Carlo. "Hullo, finm!" said r.n acquaintance, "how did •' you like Eflme p" "Rome," replied Sam, in accents of thenmst profound contempt. "You can 'ave . Pomp." So far as I am concerned anyone..can 'ave Tiniroto. '■'-'...