KENYA COLONY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 10 July 1928, Page 3

KENYA COLONY.

CONDITIONS DESCRIBED

A RETURNED NEW ZEALANDER

Kenya; Colony, formerly known- as German East Africa, is, according to Air. G. E. Hill, a New Zealander who has spent the last- two years there, quickly coining into its own as an agricultural country, the possibilities of which, lie says, are unlimited. “Settlement- is going ahead very.rapidly,” said Air. Hill, who has just returned to Auckland. “People are beginning to stream into the country, and New Zealanders are among the number. For instance, there is an estate of some 10.000 -acres held by Colonel Griffiths, of Blenheim (brother of AJr. E. Griffiths-, of New Plymouth-), Colonel Hill, of Christchurch, and Alaior Starnes, of Nelson. They call their place Aotearoa, Ltd., and it is known as the farm of the New Zealand syndicate. They have 10,000 acres! in maize.

“The pests arc countless, and an entomologist is engaged to do nothing else l hut visit farms with a view to combating this plague. The latest bug is known as the stalk borer. It gets into the ear of I he maize and does untold harm.

“Sneaking generally, the colonv is on the boom. Coffee, maize and wheat are being grown. The latter has only just been acclimatised, and the- .Equator variety is famed for its rust-resist-ing Qualities. The land is cheap and wonderfully productive. Crops ~ have been produced year after year without any fertiliser being put into the land, hut. of course, that can’t go oil forever.”

Referring to < "onditions< of life in the colony. Air. Kill said that the climate was one that suited some and not others. Even up on the heights the sun was so fierce that one could receive a stroke sittinir indoors, if the roof was of galvanised iron. Wild animals were very daring, and at night it was a common thing for leopards to enter a township in search of their daintiest meal. a. dog. It was nothing unusual in the evening to see a buck "uter the streets of the main townships.

The roads of the colony were difficult to negotiate in wet weather, as there was no metal, - hut in the' drv seasons' much of the country could be traversed, despite bump-s. Mr. Hill has returned to New Zealand to settle' down again, aw the climate of the new rolony does not suit him.