SETTLEMENT RETARDED.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1908, Page 7

SETTLEMENT RETARDED.

LACK OF COMMUNICATION TO EAST COAST LANDS. £UI TELEGBAPH.— -PHEB9 AS9OOIATION.J AUCKLAND, This Day. In the course of a conversation concerning his tour through the East Coast land®, the Hon. R. M'Nab, Minister for Lands, said that a, great stretch of country classed as "pastoral" in that district had - a stock - carrying capacity equal to the best land' in the Dominion, but a smal l portion coidd be called poor. The East Coast country had not developed as it should according to its productiveness, because it had been hampered by lack of communication. There was a lack of natural ports and harbours, nnd the centres of trade could not draw fully on the resources of thi3 counttry. He" believed that the export of frozon lambs, which .\v\is the most profitable pa.rt of the shoep industry, was less in comparison to the number of stock in Poverty Bay than in any other part of New Zealand. This was due to transport difficulties; there were only twenty miles of railway in the whole vast stretch of good country. Dairy factories must send their produce long distances, and this meant deterioration in quality and heavy expenses in freight. Railway connection with Auck- j land and insulated trucks would assist the East Coast dairying industry more than new grading stations. The same argument regarding the proportion of export lambs applied to dairying. There were less milking cows in proportion to the number of cattle on the East Coa3fc than anywhere else. All this loss of profitable outlets was due to want of good' communication. "Auckland," M/. M'Nab continued, "has another aspiraait for the North Auckland trade, but whichever centre first establishes railway communication with uhe East Coa-st adds a new province to its trade area. The line from Gisbomo through Motu to the Bay of Plenty is thought by some to be a- costly undertaking owing to the rough nature of the country. It is nothing of the sort. I have been over the route witn capable officers, and the L » is estimated to cost no more per mile than other lines in New Zealand. With the work already done on the Gisborne to Karaka- line, and the. route surveyed, Gisborno must be linked with other centres by way of Rotorua. The extension of the railway from Gisborne to Motu would open some fine timber country, and the line wouldi not wait for full completion before it proved payable. Moreover, it would pass through' extensive settlements. From Motu to Opotiki is 56 miles by the present track, but the new road will reduce the distance to 36 miles. The railway when finished through here even will have settlement all the way, and besides tapping extensive forests of timber, will open a vast stretch of country to settlement that no one can now touch owing to want of communication. 1 do not think, once railway connection is made between Oisbome nnd Rotorua, that | it will be long before the line would be pushed southward to Wuiroa, and after j tli^t BTobjaWjr to j^piejU J