POHANGINA PAST AND PRESENT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8281, 11 May 1907, Page 2

POHANGINA PAST AND PRESENT.

(By " Piopio.") (Continued.) To advise a community to "wake up" is to assume that there is need for a sharper look-out being kept with regard to some of the more important points of interest in its management. It may apply individually or collectively to a community; the force of such advice may be discounted more or less by the degree of interest held by the person tendering such advice. It is much easier as a rule to find fault and pcint out defects than to praise good intentions, and suggest practical improvements in other men's methods. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof," so says the man with no land. On the other hand, the man of broad acres says "The earth is mine and as much as I can make out of it by sale or otherwise." While no reasonable person can object to the owner of land having as much as will return him a good living, how different when it becomes a matter of aggregation fof the purpose of a big sale, or by a system of seggregation or subdividing again to the toilers at 100 per cent, in price. It would be good advice to the man with sufficient land to make a comfortable home to "Stick to it." The area of good land in this colony is now limited. Whatever the land laws of the future may be, whatever little depression there may be in the price of the staple products, of this fair land, the day of small things in the price of good land is past in New Zealand. Time works wonders now and then, more perhaps in land than it does in men. Pohangina, a district not cut of its teens, when first offered for settlement at 10s, 12s 6d and 15s per acre_. is now changing hands at as many pounds, or fully an increase of 10s per acre for each year since first the sound of the axe was heard in the deep recesses of the bush. The heavy bush has given place to green pasture, with sheep and cattle in the best of condition. This is inviting men of means <to speculate in the district, being assured that with the present price of wool and stock the investment is a good one. The small farmer who may have been struggling for years —in some cases at least—is lured by the speculator to part with his farm, and he will travel a lot and spend much on search of another place. He is apt to forget that while he has obtained a good price himself others want the same. There is a possibility of his "whipping the cat," as the saying iS, or realising that the "fire j is no cooler than the frying-pan from which he had jumped." Taxation in the way of rates may be heavy, but it must be remembered that to have good roads and bridges no district can be exempt from this burden of local taxation. If there is no taxation there can be little or no improvements or progress in any district. The owner of any land in a new district must remember that he, as a unit in the community, either helps or retards progress by his willingness or otherwise to bear the burden of taxation which the necessary improvements in a district entail. To the small farmer in possession of sufficient land to make a good home, try to get the freehold title, improve it by degrees, but do not part with it. The burden of taxation will become lighter *as the loans tor roads mature, and who should be more entitled to reap any benefits than those who have borne the burden of difficulties in the earlier stages of settlement. The roads in your county as a whole are good, although heavy repairs have been necessary, and may continue some time, on account of the sandy nature of the formation in places. This could be remedied to some extent in the worst places by P anting willows on the lower sides of the roads, especially in the bends o. r small gullies, where there is a liability of the land slipping away,

and particularly below the outfall from culverts. This is very noticeable in places where planting had been done some years ago, and ought to have been continued. If some deep-rooted grass such as red clover were sown on the upper side slopes, it would in time prevent the sand running so much every shower of rain.