ROTORUA AND ITS LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1023, 12 January 1911, Page 8

ROTORUA AND ITS LANDS.

'A'PROMISING FUTURE.

The popular conception of Rotorua, not only among strangers to the Dominion, but amongst verv many ±sew Zealanders, is a place. consisting chiefly of hot spring*, boiling mild holes, steaming fissures' awl blow holes, spouting geysers, lakes teeming with', trout, flourishing boarding-house-keepers, and persuasive Native guides. That Rotorua lms a lc?s romantic, but none the less valuable., impor.•;anee as ;r a'.;district* of agricultural possibilities, is almost unknown. Nevertheless, according to tho Auckland "-Cejvs," sturounding. Eotorua, thoro arct many thousands of acres, of land equal.; for farming purposes, to a great'"deal of the "Wniknto, but owing." to tho -operation #of tho Thermal Springs. District Act, wjnch .hasvlyerL':ou.the 4 ,Sta.tj | itQ ; ..B99K. for nearly «yeftrs-pa^.t;. it ; -has not- beon available for "settlement! Hero and. there, tfhere selectors, have been fortunate enough .to secure' l6ases ?r of small areas of'the land, they have demonstrated, the richness of . the' soil,, and the-capabilities of tho <\}- trict. • The Okohiriki and Waititi Blocks, between Rotorua and Mamaku, which compriso a total of some' 10.000 acres, afford an illustration. Out of this large al'oa onlv about eight small farms have been'settled.,*,.The productiveness of these farms is sufficient testimony to- the .value of tho land, but owing to the restrictions..practically • the, whole, of . these blocks hare been lying idle,, whilst would.be>settlers," ready .arid ..anxious to secure a home for themselves 1 and their families, bave'to remain landless. In other parts of the district surrounding Rotorua. the fertility of the land is made manifest in the growth of good' grass,, turnips, and root crops, wlierever small pltots have been wrested by holders of tlip : tew'small-leases,; or by the [Native owners themselves, from the reign of the fern and;tutu. The new Thermal.Springs Act, passed last session, and ; which repeals the previous Act, has as its 4 avowed' object the removal of the present obstacles to the settlement of the Rotorua' lands.; It will come into force on' February 1, and if . it results, in placing this large tract of country within tho rpach of the industrious small settler, it will soon effect a transformation scene-in the environs of the great resort of the tourist, angler, and health-seeker.