HUKANUI.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1045, 7 February 1911, Page 8

HUKANUI.

AN EXAMPLE OF INDTJSTET. . • £> " It is demonstrated at" UuJcanui, the stoney desert of tho Forty-Milo Busli, what settlers of tho right stamp can do. About 20 years ago tho surrounding cauntrv was occupied in 200-acre sections bv settlersfrom A.tlio- Jlutt.v.Mastorton, and "Pahlat'ua. One hihidred 'acres near the railway was purchased as tho sito of a township, and this was sold by Messrs. T. K. Macdonald and Co., under tho title of Brownston; intended to perpetuate thn name of Mr. C. W. Brown, one of the leading promoters of (ho settlement.- The residents, preferred, a iMaori name, 1 ar.d tho- onG* choso was Ilukanui. --Fronv the railway, -through tho llutt -and 'KakKriki special settlements. a distance of four miles, to tho Maugahao River, a great deal of tho land was covered with boulders, scrub, and'fern. What with rocks and stynrps and - holes tho road to tho homesteads was one of the worst in tho bush district. Some of the sections hero changed hands, but most of tho. scUlors, in spito of 'discouragements, stuck/, to their homes. They ''- thoir, sections, orectod a creamery, liolpcd the local sawmillers to inv a tramway so th.it they raisht sell ' their r timber, and borrowed .£6OO with which they, formed six miles of tho best and cheapest road in the Eketahuna County. The scrub, states Mr.-' A. W. Hogg," MJP., has besn ploughed under, the stones bavo been gathered into heaps, fmo residences hayo boon built, and tho creamery is ono of tho most prosperous and prodnctivo tributaries'of tho'celobratod Ballanco Dairy Company. Last week the settlement held a schoolpicnic on the banks of tho arid between 200 and 300 of all ages ana of both sexes assembled.