WAIRARAPA DEVELOPMENT

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 124, 19 February 1929, Page 13

WAIRARAPA DEVELOPMENT

Sir—l read in the newspapers that there is a movement afoot to organise a Wairarapa Progressive League, and 1 think it certainly time that something was done in this direction. When one takes into consideration that to have a Wairarapa representative in Parliament it is necessary to extend the electoral boundaries as far north as Castlepoint and south to Palliser Bay, an area very sparsely populated, it will be seen that there is plenty of room for further settlement: , . Take, for instance, the Wairarapa Lake, which covers an area of 43,000 acres. Some of the mud .flats, caused by the lake receding, have been sold for 10s. and £1 per acre, while the 60,000 acres adjoining these mud flats, which is also more or less under water, is also worthy of consideration. If the Government purchased this 60,000 acres at £2 per acre, > altered, the course of the Ruamahanga " and Tauherenikau Rivers, at a cost of, say, £BO,OOO, then added the area of the lake, converted into dry land by such draining, there would be a total of .103,000 acres. If this area were sold for £6 per ■ acre, the total proceeds would be £618,000 less £200,000 expended in buying back land and drafting. The scheme, therefore, would show a profit of £418,000. This being accomplished, the Government could then purchase, the large estates Around the lake, and there would be land available, for another 7000 settlers. Then, by connecting up the road from a South Wairarapa estate to Pencarrow, a distance of fifteen miles, it would be possible for the.settlers to convey their milk to Wellington every day. If this were done, it would also be possible for thousands of Wairarapa people to motor to Wellington’s seaside resorts, while city people could avail themselves of camping grounds along the East Coast. To bring such a scheme to fruition, we must all be'progressive, and utilise the unemployed on work that would be of value to the city and district.—l am, etc-. < ?.

J. T. BICKNELL. Featherston, February 13.