NEW COUNTRY.

Grey River Argus, 20 July 1922, Page 3

NEW COUNTRY.

TAUPO RESOURCES. The other day a telegram from the North Island referred to a commission’s enquiry re a railway from Rotorua to Taupo. A timber company has a lino there, and it will be interesting to see if somebody induces the Government to buy it at the vendors’ price. At the same time, the new country to be opened up is evidently very good. The Government paper in Wellington says:—“The evidence of farmers, railway exports, millers, and other authorities conversant with the potentialities of the districts within the influence of the Taupo-Rotorua railway project, suggests that a multiplicity of vastly wealthy national resources will be opened to productivity when the rich valleys of the Waiotapu and the pine-clad ridges on the route arc given their commercial value through railway extension. Two million acres of hind, more than half of which may be put under the plough, await the settler in this district, according to evidence given before the Taupo-Rotorua Railway Commission. Its value to the dairying industry was illustrated by the statement of a soldier-settler at Reparoa, who ran 20 cows on 82 acres, of a Government valuation of £950, and averaged 2001 b of butter-fat per cow. The climate is similar to Canterbury, Silthough not so subject to frosts, and the rainfall averages from 45 inches on the Kaingaroa Plains to 52 inches at Rotorua. At Reparoa, on an estate of 15,000 acres, 10,000 sheep were shorn, ami 2000 head of cattle depastured, in its best days. In the country served by the eastern projected route there are 88,000 acres suitable for dairying, at four acres to the cow, capable of turning out 150 lb of but-ter-fat per cow, which would mean a tidy shipment of nearly 1500 tons ol butter from the port of Auckland, or Tauranga, if the extension is made to that port. Averaging dairy herds at 40 head, 550 families can be supported by dairying. The wool clip would be in the vicinity of four and a-ha If million pounds weight, 700,000 sheep could be run, and 70,000 cattty. The lambing, on a basis of 85 per cent, would be 255,000 a year. The pastoral industry alone would accommodate 1000 families. Vast Timber Resources, It was stated that it is almost im- I possible to exaggerate the value of the ’ commercial timbers, such as pine, to- I tnra, birch, and eucalyptus, that will become marketable when the 50 miles between Rotorua and Taupo arc span ' ned by a railway. The Forestry Department’s estimate shows a total of 4,000,000.000 stands of timber; the royalties, at 2/6 per 100, being worth d&5,000,000. From the increment of forest growth, 160,000 acres of indigenous forest await the activities of the j axemen, ami the miller in State,-owned i forests, and .34.000 acres privately | owned and in Native occupation. Vis | itors to the district have seen the magjnifieent 100 ft pints insignia in the grounds of the Wharepino school. Fruits, such as gooseberries, raspberries .strawberries, and cherries, thrive in fixe district. The indirect revenue from Hands, sale of Crown lands, and the increased taxable values of private lands