HOMESTEAD SYSTEM.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 21 December 1927, Page 9

HOMESTEAD SYSTEM.

SETTLERS AT HOIIOHORO. (BY TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION.) HAMILTON, Dec. 19. Six settlers have taken up land under the homestead system at Horohoro, 12 miles west of Rotorua. The block comprises 9771 acres, and is subdivided into 13 sections, ranging from 248 acres to 686 acres. Under the homestead [system the licensee is given the use of the land free, and i.s required "within six years after the date of selection, to have (aid down in permanent cutlivated grasses and clovers not less than one-half of the total area of the section, and to have placed upon the land substantial improvements to a total value of not less than 30s an acre.”

The whole of the Horohoro block is of a light p urn ace oils nature, covered with a growth of scrub, manuka, rushes and flax, and some native tussock grass. Most of the land is undulating, with some flat terraces. The land, genera’lv .speaking, is fairly watered by small running streams through marshy ground. Some of the sections are very broken with steep gullies and terraces. Overtowering the settlement to the north is Horohoro Mountain, a lofty tableland of extraordinary rocky formation.

Access is given to the block by a good .summer road. All the sections have frontages to formed or partlyformed roads. The 13 sections were offered for selection last June. Of the s : x settlors who took up areas three are in occupation. These men have done a good deal of fencing and ploughing already and a’ lot of oats has been sown. Tt is proposed to make a start with milking before long.