DISTRICT VISIT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22198, 7 December 1946, Page 10

DISTRICT VISIT

PIG SUPERVISORS HURIMUA SETTLEMENT GISBORNE PIGGERIES When supervisors from all the pig council districts completed their annual conference and tour of the Gisborne end of the Tairawhiti council’s district this week they left for their home districts with a very favourable impression of the productivity of the area and the hospitality of the settlers. On the trip to Gisborne from Hawke’s Bay, the Tairawhiti supervisor, Mr. H. A. Hbpkins, took the party to the Hurimua soldiers’ settlement, Wairoa, where Maori returned men are taught the ways of the land. The supervisors were conducted over the property by the manager, Mr. Carlson, who explained that the shortest term was one of a year, but most of the servicemen took two years to qualify. The settlement is on the Awamate road and part of it was a portion of Mr. A. T. Carroll’s Hurimua station. The settlement now extends over several thousands of acres and covers every branch of farming activity. It has extensive flocks and runs a herd of 100 cows. There were large areas down in tomatoes and asparagus. The visitors were impressed with the intensiveness of the scheme. Unique Wairoa Feeding From the settlement the supervisors were taken to Mr. Arthur Gordon's piggeries in Flaxmill road and the unique feeding arrangements were of great interest to the party. They had hot before seen the results of butter-: milk feeding in conjunction with waste by-products from freezing works. It was interesting for them to note also that Mr. Gordon had the largest commercial run in the district, and they felt their trip had been well worth while to that part of the district if only to see the results obtained by that feeding method. The morning after their arrival at Gisborne the party visited the most intensively-run small farm in the district so far as* pigs are concerned, the property of Mr. J. Nickerson, Wae-renga-a-hika, and they were quite impressed with his Berkshire boar, the championship winner in the open class at the recent Show.

At**the Ellerslie stud of Mr. R. K. Hepburn, Manutuke, they studied the new piggeries and considered the Berkshire sow, champion at the last Show, the best sow of that breed they had seen on this coast. She was seen to the best advantage as she was suckling a litter of 10.

South Island representatives in the party, although no more expert to pass a comment than the next layman interested mainly in the eating of the fruit, were enthusiastic concerning the local oranges tasted at Mr. Hepburn’s. One had never before seen oranges growing. They only confirmed what many other and more expert critics have said about Gisborne oranges and citrus fruit in general.