PROGRESS OF POVERTY BAY.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume II, Issue 261, 8 October 1912, Page 3

PROGRESS OF POVERTY BAY.

GROWTH OF GISBORNE. OPENING UP COUNTRY. — ROADS BADLY WANTED. [SPECIAL TO “the TKIBI'NE." ] Gisborne is moving by leaps anc bounds. The time was when people named Gisborne with something akir to disgust. The native question seemed to have a disagreeable taste ir the mouths of many, and wher things could not be settled the hope; of settlers sank and many left thi district, never to return. But thing! are not as they were. Every steamer, whether from Auckland or the south is full of passengers, and nothing shows the need 01 rapid lane communication more than the great influx of people that is to be seei. every day a steamer arrives in the bay. Gisborne is a place of growing attractions. The streets are so wide that it becomes a costly business te keep them in repair, and the build ings, owing to the width of the streets, seem comparatively small. And yet one dares affirm that few places outside the four large citie: contain finer and more commocliou; places of business. The populatioi is increasing at a great rate, so great in fact that the town improvements cannot keep pace with the demands for homes. I have known Gisborm for some thirty or more years, am 1 do not recollect having seen the roads as bad as during the past win ter. Squabbles about them, letters calling upon the town authorities tc improve them, and even public meetings have taken place, but the roads are still an eyesore to citizens. Yot cannot make a road in a month, noi indeed in a year with the metal that is to be found within fair carrying distance of Gisborne. But the fault rests, so the knowing ones affirm, ir. the fact that no proper formation has ever taken place. Loads o! metal have been thrown in the mair streets and this has worked down into the sands so that the roads flatten down as soon as traffic is increased. Mud holes and mud sloughs have been so common that horses and carts have failed to get along the roads for days, and the cabmen have refused to go into certain streets in consequence of tin mud and desperate state of the roads.

But with all this the progress ir the town and district is real. A very large area of country is being opened up. There is a buoyancy among the settlers that is most promising fol the future, and so soon as coinmuni cation is possible by means of’the lailway to the inland settlements. Gisborne must become a place o! great importance. The two lines oi communication that must come as r. part of the Government scheme wih make Gisborne one of the chiel towns of the North Island. Bul there are other things that will yet help on Gisborne and the district af a whole. There is quietly being carried on oil sinking test, and should a good flow’ of oil be struck, Poverty Bay will flourish beyond all expectations. for the land is rich and extensive, and production will continue to increase for many years to come. The railway line that is to form communication between Gisborne and Napier passes through some oi the richest country in the island. Patutahi, Ngatapu, and Hangaroa

j are districts that will become of ; great importance as soon as railway communication is opened with the port of Gisborne. The country is rich and the line will lead to the opening up of country beyond Waikaremoana. and leading on to the Taupo country. Thus Gisborne to-day is but a mere semblance of the Gisborne that will be in another quarter of a century. And it is railway communication that will bring about the great change. The Government has done a good deal for Poverty Bay .'ind it must be admitted that Sir j k 11 has been a represenrntive ot whom any district might fppj proud. People are far too apt tn deciv the man who is not always. nt, at the top of his voice for something for his district. But Sir .intnes has carried many important tt-nruv for the, good of the district and certainly settlement has taken plate at a wonderfully rapid pace during the time he has been the representative of Gisborne. The "Taihoa policy” by some is misunderstood. Sir James understands how to deal with Natives, and that to force them is to spoil the prospect of settlement, To-day Poverty Bay is advancing rapidly in the settlement of its lands and it must be said to the credit of the Native Councils that they’ are working as effectively as any ordinary representative council could where legal difficulties have to be overcome before the land can be leased.

What Poverty Bay needs in addition to the railway communication is a system of good roads. Go where y ou will the roads are execrable. The further yon go from Gisborne the better the roads become. Along the East Coast, beyond Toiago Bay, you get into the Waiapu county, and there you see activity and improvements in the roads. The metal used is not of good quality, but sane methods of road formation are adopted. There is a demand for these roads because townships like Tologa Bay, Tokoinaru Bay and Waipiro Bay are going apace. All these growing townships re-act on the prosperity of Gisborne, and so coastwise and inland the forces are working that must go to benefit Gisborne as the capital of the East Coast districts.