OUT WEST.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 151, 26 June 1912, Page 14

OUT WEST.

THE NORTHERN MAIN TRUNK. TE KUITI AND ITS BACK COUNTRY. A LAND OF PROMISE. The real Main Trunk country may be dividied into two parts, of which the Wanganui River may be roughly taken as the boundary line. There is the Southern Main Truuk, already described, from Taihape to Taumarunui; there n the Northern . Main Trunk from Taumarunui to Te Kuiti. The Wanganui River does not tako a course by any means east and west : rather is it north and south, with a slight trend to the west, but its deep-cut channel from Taumarunui to Pipiriki at leatt does constitute an effective and definite boundary. The country to tho west and north of the Wanganui comes generally within the sphere of influence, first of Auckland and then of Taranaki and New Plymouth. The railway in the course oi construction from Stratford, on the West Coast line, to Te Koura, on | the Main Trunk jubt s-outh of Ongarue, will open up the greater pait of this country, and Auckland and Tuianaki will meet half-way. A REALLY LIVE PLACE. j Te Kuiti is within the province of Auckland, being exactly 300 miles from Wellington^ and 126 fiom the Northern Clty.^ It is th-e centre of a -\a.«t tract j of virgin country of varying qualities | of soil now being opened up for t-ettle-ment. It is part of the real King Country, and, therefore, is face to face with th-e native land difficulty. Much has been done to solve this, and settlement has gone ahead rapidly, much to the benefit of Te Kuiti anil Auckland. Few towns have made such progress in recent years as Te Kuiti, and it i& now a leally live place, with a considerable trade as a centro of a new country. It is a bright little place in the hollow of a fern-clad valley, a borough Avith the improvements in sanitation, lighting, and water supply that usually follow closely on the establishment of local government. The Main Trunk traveller passing through in the train tees nothing whatever of it, unless it is the busy refreshment room at the station. It is two o'clock in the morning when he gets there, whether it bo from Auckland or Wellington, for the expresses cross at Te Kuiti. It Ib, therefore, to the average traveller a bit of that .darkest New Zealand between Te Awamutu and Raurimu. From the point of view of scenery the traveller does not miss much, as it is simply a long succession of vistas of fern-clad rolling bills, with scattered clumps of mixed bush — a country largely unfarmed, for the soil is of that light volcanic variety. BEST TO THE WEST. To see the country that is making Te Kuiti you have to go back twenty miles or so, and then you will understand tho confidence inspired in the future of the place. Three or four years ago there