Northland Impresses Westlanders

Northern Advocate, 12 June 1939, Page 6

Northland Impresses Westlanders

That Northland has unparalleled prospects for primary production is the impression which the Westland farmers who have been touring the province for the past few days are carrying away.

Leaving Whangarei on Saturday afternoon, the party, which comprises more than 100 members of the Westland Farmers’ Union and their wives, spent the week-end at Russell, and this morning passed through Whangarei by train once more, on route to Dargaville. Surprise at the development which had been made in Northland farming was expressed by Mr Wallace Norton, president of the Westland Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union. “The transformation from barren gumland to productive pasture is amazing,” he said, in reference to work done at the Wharekohe Block, visited by the party on Saturday. Here the visitors saw green pastures divided only by a fence line from scrub-covered gumland, representative of the condition of the area before development was undertaken. * Valuable Lessons. Westland farmers had learned valuable lessons from Northland’s treatment of the gumlands, was the opinion of Mr J. Mulcare, provincial secretary to the Westland Union. Westland’s clay country was almost on a parallel with the type of soil now being exploited in the north, he said, but up to the present no successful inethod of treatment had been formulated. It was more than possible that the Northland method of lime treatment, with modifications to suit climatic differences, could be made applicable to the Westland clay land. “From an educational point of view the tour has been highly worth while,” he added. Warm Hospitality. All members of the party were loud in their thanks to the people of Northland for the warm hospitality which had been accorded them. “I don’t think the people of the coast could ever reciprocate,” said one. Mr Mulcare said that one gesture which had been particularly appreciated had been the action of Mr H. W. Crawford, managing director of the Northern Publishing Company, in providing gratis, for every member of the party, copies of the “Northern Advocate” containing reports of the tour and the Whangarei reception, as well as statistical information concerning the province. “This thoughtful gesture was typical of the generous treatment we have received throughout the tour to date,” Mr' Mulcare concluded.