NORTH AND SOUTH.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 29 November 1924, Page 15

NORTH AND SOUTH.

HALF A CENTURY AGO. “The landed estate of the North Island is, in plain language, a. gigantic swindle. Premiers have dangled this grand estate of the future before our eyes with some little profit to* themselves, but we have reason to know that it is a humbug. The evidence of unprejudiced travellers, as well as the unfailing testimony of agricultural statistics —these tell-tale tits of commerce—all go to show that the grand landed estate in the North Island is a mockery and a snare. The Europeans 1. have already got hold" of the eyes of I the country, and they canot grow 7 grain j even then. What remains, chiefly fit for grazing, is almost entirely useless for purposes of ordinary agriculture, and is chiefly 'valuable for the purpose for which it has been so often used, of swindling the public creditor out of a new loan or deluding the Southern Island Provinces into parting with their land fund, in hopes of recouping themselves for their present . sacrifice by sharing in the proceeds of northern land sales when that hypothetical bird is limed and handled. We know that there are a good many good judges, canny men, who liav4 gone up north with the idea of investing money and who have come to the conclusion* that, we have named, viz., that tli e North Island was —a humbug, and that no facilities for settling, at all comparable with those offered in Canterbury and Otago, were to be found north of Cook Strait. We must suppose that Mr. Holloway was surrounded in Taranaki by some of those gentry who have traded, so long upon that reputation for a mythical wealth of land with winch we southerners have been sickened for years past. We think it about time that the North Island land, and consequent fund, swindle were exploded, and w e propose to lend a hand to puncture the balloon before we in the South are led any further astray.” The above is an .extract from an article; which appeared in a leading Dunedin newspaper fifty years ago. The criticism was directed specially at Taranaki, the Mr. Holloway mentioned having just paid a visit to this district and reported favourably upon it. Time has, however, brought‘its revenge. The i fcll m iias * a . r out stripped the South, and Taranaki has proved itself the most fertile district in the Dominion.