OUR RICHEST COUNTY

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 104, 4 May 1935, Page 15

OUR RICHEST COUNTY

ON ENGLISH MODELS

The Rangitikei River is known to Main Trunk railway trippers by its gorges and papa cliffs, a striking feature of the country between Hunterville and the high central plateau beginning at Waiouru. But there is a lower Rangitikei of level or undulating fertile lands—a Rangitikei not really known to the railway traveller because he cannot command a comprehensive view of it- and not really known to the motor tripper who speeds along the west coast highway from Palmerston North via Bulls to Wanganui, because he is cutting across this lower RangUikei'rather than

Mr. Will G. Tolley writes to the editor about this lower, fertile, historic Rangitikei. He who runs may read but he who speeds may not always see Mr. Tolley points out that if people really wish to know their own country, and if they are not content to rush by everything with eyeballs glazed upon a glaring road, knowledge is waiting for them.

_ Know that if you turn to the right irom the centre of Bulls township a most deUghtful vista of unsuspected miles of beautiful undulating agricultural country lies before you—country that has been likened to a Yorkshire landscape, with its byways of hedges and plantations of English trees surrounding some of Rangitikei's fine old homesteads; homes of many of the prosperous pioneer families now passing rapidly away. Unlike many districts, it is not distinguished by any one particular place. Rather is one struck by the general atmosphere of prosperity and its adaptability for any purpose. - '

"Some six miles from Bulls, and less than three from Marton, is the old model village of Crofton, built by Sir William Fox for his tenants (or 'crofters') on the estate. This for a number of years supplied the growing township of Marton with all varieties of fruit, from oranges, peaches, plums, to the smaller fruits, black and red currants, etc. Take it by and large, the County of Rangitikei, in spite of depressions or other things, is the most dependable, productive, and prosperous county in either the North or the South Island, and has already earned a reputation for its products known as 'prime Rangitikei.'

"Marton, as its name implies, is a settlement of old English settlers. If you make Marton your camptng spot— which you should do—there is a very comfortable cosy camning ground laid out adioinine Marton Park. It is a real nark, beautifully laid out, with wellkept lawns, playing greens and winding paths amid exquisite flower beds. Here one can sit and eniov Nature from some well-ulnced sppt beneath a spreading, restful, leafy Erelish o?k or elm. The scene equals the best in New pjvvnnnth's famous Pukekura Park.

"Visitors should inaulre the way via F^rn Flats on their jour'iey again to Waneanui. Here you ,wJU pass betwpen miles of old English hedeerows and throueh some of thp richest land (9,0 tons of potatoes to t)-e. acre) of the North Island. After pissing through to rejoin the main highway at Turakina, you will assuredly say, 'It was very well worth while.'"