SEEING IS BELIEVING.

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 167, 16 July 1919, Page 5

SEEING IS BELIEVING.

MARLBOROUGH SCHEME OF SOLDIER SETTLEMENT.

AN INSPECTION OF THE PROPERTIES. •

The invitation given by Mr J. J. Corry to the members of the Marlborough Patriotic Association to be his guests for a tour of the agricultural properties recommended to the Government for soldier settlement was fulfilled yesterday. Tli© party numbered about twenty, and it included several farmers with a lengthy and practical experience of the working and the producing capacity of the land in the districts traversed. The excursion, which was made in motor-cars, started off from town at 10.30, proceeding to the Dillon's Point district, where the scheme embraces an extensive area.

The various properties Avere examined at close quarters': the paddocks were crossed; the soil was prodded and fingered, and the quality of the land critically appraised. The depth of the winter is not, of course, the best part of the year for show purposes, but this country does not need its harvest garb to.carry conviction. Evidence of its " fertility,,and its subdivisional capabilities there was plenty, in its bulky stacks of winter fodder, the broad fields of sprouting cereals, the sustaining_ power of its lucerne grazing even in the middle of winter, its ample artesian flows, and the p>er-acre number and thriving condition of the cattle and sheep. One noteworthy object of intereston Mr Fred Parker's dairy farm—was the quite luxuriant growth of lucerne all over a large field from which, the 'double-producing principle having been applied, a crop of seed peas was taken last season." The extra cultivation had vigorously promoted the lucerne. On the same ground was the balance of a big stack of ensilage. All these things were-on the surface, and could be seen at a glance. Those people who are closely acquainted with this part, of the Wairau Plain, with its great depth"of rich river silt; know in addition that it has been fielding high returns of oats and barley for decades, without artificial manuring, but without soil exhaustion, and that its substantial and continuous output of fat :.stock and-.but-, teifat'is an ascending factor! , '

Near the sea where the soil is of tougher consistency, and has a proportion of salt, the eoTintry may well be regarded as lending itself to "closer settlement, with, sayi" a system of surface draining .and the propagation of lucerne. Sheep,, and cattle too, thrive remarkably well in that direction. Lucerne, as lias been proved, already, can be successfully established there, and would afford good hay ■returns and grazing, and particularly profitable yields of seed. Returning to town for lunch, the party set out in the afternoon to the west of Blenheim, and visited Mr T. S Davies's farm. "Epworth," near Springlands; Mr T. Jeffries'^ 1000----acre property, "Moorlands," in the Upper Spring Creek district; and Mr Fred Redwood's farm at Spring Creek.

At/ the 'last-mentioned place Mr Corry addressed the party arid asked it to pass judgment individually and collectively on what it; had seen. He invitee! its members to say freely what they thought about the proper- j ties they had inspected. They would' not offend him by being outspoken. Something had been said in an unfriendly way about exploiting the soldiers, but he asked them not to allow themselves to be; influenced by any unnecessary dis'tractioii.';of '"this kind. He wanted them to 'consider the § resent proposition on its merits. He id not want to follow it up if it was not the right thing. Personally he stood to gain nothing;, it would not make a penny difference to him if the /whole of the land, a (portion of it, or none at all was acquired. His only anxiety was to see justice done to the soldiers—tp see Marlborough soldiers given a fair chance of settling down ok Marlborough land. He explained; that the scheme under consideration had been presented to the Government by a joint delegation of the Marlborough Patriotic Association and the Blenheim Repatriation Committee, optionsl having Ibeen secured over phe properties it embraced. These properties, on which stoodf some 14 buildings, comprised in tho aggregate about 3500 acres, and the prices ranged from £85 per. acre to £23 per acre. The average price worked out at about £44 10s per acre, and it would cost about £156,000 to acquire all the properties. Probably aliout 65 families could "be comfortably settled on them. .

All the members of the party expressed themselves as "having' "been favorably impressed, and some admitted that they had been agreeably surprised. AH willingly agreed to the attachment of their names to a te.legram >n forming the Minister for Lands of the tour of inspection and urging on him tha adoption of the scheme of soldier settlement they had been investigating. The slpnaWies are: Messrs C. Naes,. Ed, Hart, H. br. Dawkins (Picton), C. Matthews, Adam Bell, J. O'Dwyer, E. Rose E S Rutherford, W. Smith, A. D Loe C.. F. Murray, J.. M. Llghtfoot. h! J. Mitchell W Allen ,L. Tunnicliffe, <J. White, W. Pollard.