LANDING HOME WITH A FINE PIG.

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

LANDING HOME WITH A FINE PIG.

PROBLEM OF THE HIGH LANDS. A tramp of about eight miles over a, rough but metalled road, gradually as cending, practically in v straight line, brings one from Raetilu to Horopito, back to the railway again. Tho land is bottled all tho way in apparently small areas. The homesteads seem modebtly prosperous, and the other day, when Ihe writer went through on foot, tome of the ancient original dwellings of the settlers were being replaced by the less picturesque but more commodious box house so typical of the second btage in the settlement of virgin couiitiy. There are one or two sawmills on the way, and lound Horopito there are three or four, all of which gives the country a certain air of prosperity. One is not so sure of the future of the high countiy round Horopito. It may do as summer pasture, but ft is well over 2000 feet above the sea-level, and even in these latitudes that means a very severe winter. There were heavy frosts there when the writer visited the country in April. Only practical experience will ascertain the true value of these high regions for farming, but of the lower Main Trunk country thero is not the least doubt. Still, sawmilling pttßures at least ten years' continuance of prosperity even to the highest places, and when that is nearly over ■there will be lime to consider the future then. It \vill certainly not h« v, barren future, for there are more ways of making; :i living than one. It may bo that the advico ot' the .Right Hon. .Tames Bryce. our recent distinguished visitor, will bo followed, and in Clio comparative shelter of what bush is left after the mills have gone through the forest trees will bo planted to maintain a supply of timber for posterity. A system of shelter belts may be arranged, if tho State takes time by the forelock, and the land, which will certainly feel the- climate badly, if left exposed, be pioteeted iv peimaiteiuy ah jmßtura;^' tut sU»-k. Soiu» h«hli l>i'->-vibiuit'lur thu futum i* m'tainJy ty be Ugßiiod fur Hub jug li. wuiit. ry>

was leally no access to this country. The so-called Awukino-To Kuiti mum ruail is even to-day a byword, so far as leads are uMiceriieJ : three or four years uyu it was a mere jeM. Planned 011 a large »<ule by the same Government that kept lh« Alain Trunk back for half a generation, it is stilL an example of the policy adopted by the Public Works Department in the backblocks. It has been built, such as it is, in driblets, and overybody knows what driblets mean to a road in a country where the rainfall is heavy and there is only one way in and out. A mile was metalled here and a mile there with great sloughs of mud between. As a road is not valued according to the number of good patches, but according to the fewness of bad stretches, this meant practically a sheer waste of money. A coach or a team would get bogged within sight of a fine metalled mile, which was absolutely no use to it in its present predicament. What ought to have been done was to have metalled and drained the bad places and thus furnished n fairly gcod average road for the backblocks. COACHING OVER BAD 110 ADS. Bad as the- road is, ifc is the only road, and tho natural progress of settlement has induced au enterprising firm of coach proprietors to take- up tho l mining of a regular service out of To Kuiti to the settlements alongthc road to Piopio. Aria, and Mahoenui. There are aJso many teams taking heavy nia« terial and stores to tho eelLler^ out back and bringing hack their product* in totuin. All this traffic reacts on the primitive parts of the road and all sorts of temporary repairs have to be made in the shape of manuka scrub fascines, corduroying with sciub and timber where available and flinging into holes quantities of earth and uiotul. The I strangest wart about this road is that good metal is plentiful in the limestone whuh abound!- in the district, and it would nut be a vciy &niuus matter lo j' metal' it. ull 'witlr this iiiie loadmakin^ [lauteriol ami give, lUo liigbvay. to th^

backblocks such a foundation that it would never get back into its old state. At all events come drastic and radical measure of improvement is needed, if the Fettleis aro to be given a chance of making a livelihood out-back. SOME FINE DRIVING. The coaches start from Te Kuiti early in tho moruing, one bound for Mahoenui the other for Aria. They travel together to Piopio, about eighteen miles i out, and then part company, Mahoenui lying straight on another fifteen miles or so, and Aria about nine or ten miles straight west on the Awakino-ioad, and to the south on a branch road. The writer has been over both roads, having come through from Awakino on the coast on foot some years ago. This time the choice was* Aria, in the remote backblocks oil' tho main road. Incidentally ,the drive from To Kuiti in the coach gives one the opportunity of witnessing some of the fiuest handling of a team of coach horses to be seen anywhere in the Dominion. There may be more dangerous roads, such as the NelsonWestport route through the Bullei Gorge or the crossing of Arthur's Pass from Otirn to the Casj, but in both ca6es the actual road surface is good, hard metal, and the horses are so highly trained and so üßed to the work, which does not vary much, that driving is largely a mechanical matter. It is different when a team has to be nursed up and down hill through miles and miles of mud and quagmires and sloughs, round corners where the wheels will net grip for the (slippery skuh on tho surface, and up steep pinches where thi horses' hooves filid it hard to (>et a purchase. This is where the finer arts of driving have to be exercised, where a man must drive all the time. HOW THE TEAM IS HANDLED. Only an expert, perhaps, could appreciate to the full the skill of the drivel* <-f the To KnitiAria coach in negotiating the route, but the layman could see the intimate understanding between the driver and his horses, how at a slight whistle or a, click they responded instantly, how they answered their several names, how they never flagged or shirked their woik, no matter how heavy it. was. To show what his team was capable of doing. Mr. Lewie, the driver, would sometimes Btop them on the steeppbt grades and then set them going all together, so that they pulled ac one. There was no use of the whip anywhere on ci tlier team, for the horses were Huuiged at Pio-pio. It was all done 1 by word or whistle or appeal by name to each horse. Round hidden" hole**, skirting ruts axle-deep, through the sloughs, where there was nothing else fur it, the splendid team steadily pulted tho heavy couch, loaded to its limit, with the local Maori band returning from somo Native festival in full uniform, big drum and brnns trumpets and all. There were s-acks of produce, too, groceries for the settlers, and even a galvanised iron kitchen chimnes. SCENES BY THE ROADSIDE. There is a fair amount of settlement along the road. Here about seven mileo from Te Kuiti an enterprising settlor and hia wife have set up a refreshment booth, where tho coach paEeengers, chilled with the keen air of a southerly breeze, can get a warm cup of tea and home-made cake and scones. Further on tho settlers' children and wives como down to «et the newspaper, the man, and some liUlo parcel or other tho conch may, bB bringing out to thorn. Mr. Lewis, the pioneer of the coaching service in this country, docs a great deal iv buying things for the tettlers, the variety of things he is asked to get bem^ practically unlimited. In this way tho two coaches roll on through the mud at a- steady pace through a country gradually improving, from pumice to limestone. It is a rolling country, easy for the -fanner to work, if he can only get rid of the- fern. In this he is meeting with fair success, but it requires careful stocking in the spring time and constant effort tv prevent the fern getting its own back. PIOPIO AND ITS TENT SCHOOL. Piopio is in the heart of the 'limestone country, which here shows in much weather outcrops' and cliffs. ' It seems strange that it has not been put to some uso as a fertiliser or for mad metal, but the dirt road continues right along with the limestone on each side. Piopio four or five , years ago consisted of a single store. Now it has its accommodation house, its butchery, its hall, its billiard room, and it will soon have its school. At present the scholars are taught in a large marquee — a sort of canvas academy c-r educational tabernacle, but it is to be hoped that with the winter will come something more substantial. A King Country winter's day would seem to be apt to freoze the sources of learning. The tent school, however, is interesting as showing the rapid development in settlement. Schooling must bo provided for the Bettlers' childreu, and rather than be put off the settlers put up with teaching in' a tent. What a good time the children must have in summer ! THE WAIRERE KALLS. From Piopio to Aria the road runs potith over a country gradually becoming hillier— tho borderland of tho" truo foroflt. The- coach climbs ov<?r rough go-as-ymi-pleaio tracks over a. 1 «orl of moorland of ferii, and from tho top may bo .seen the higher hills to thty went towards Turauaki and the coast and tho undulating wilderness of fern to the north. Tho road comes across theMokau river, which at thin ntago has' I been meandering slowly and peacefully' through flat valley bottoms and swamp*. Suddenly ju.-l aloit>jpsido tho muds and about halt-way hi-tvc'ii )'i mio ;ni<! Alia il take& a luigu leap into a yuinr Ix-luv, . Ut. pouiß through a nunuw s-pout in a luncetonu dcl't out 4 hi^'i blvn-ldso

ledge, strikes another some fifty feet below, and then, bounding out for another fifty, makes a final plunge of about twenty feet. These are the Wairero Falls of the Mokau, ono of the finest but the least known waterfalls in the Dominion. The Mokau is here quite a considerable river with great storage capacity in its winding career from ite source through ewamps and flat 6. Its volume varies very little, summer or winter, wet or fine, owing to the spongelike character of the ewamps holding tho water and ensuring regular delivery. EXCELLENT FOR WATER-POWER. As a water-power proposition the Wairero Falls seem nearly ideal. The water could be easily controlled in its nairow spout at the top and a pipe line running down the face of the big lime-; stone clilf tho whole one hundred and twenty feet or more would convey the head of water to a power station, for whicli there is an excellent site in tho easy slope of the sides of the gorge near the bottom. At least 20,000 horse-power should be available, and tho close proximity to Mokau water-power of Mokau coal and Mokau limestone should make the manufacture of carbide and similar materials a very feasible commercial proposition. In addition, of course, there might be the running of tho railways adjacent. Should the falls be developed tho township of Aria some four or live miles away stands to profit. 'It- is at present a hamlet with a couple of accommodation houses, stores, blacksmith's shop, stables, and billiard rooms. It is tho farthest south now reached of tho coach from Te Kuiti. Beyond is the bush.