TARANAKI.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 82, 9 June 1866, Page 2

TARANAKI.

A correspondent of an Auckland paper gives the following glowing account of the confiscated land on the West Coast : — As the confiscated land between Manawapu and Patea is now being surveyed for the occupation of settlers, and as it is probable that ere long the land all around this station will be surveyed, it may not be amiss to state, for the information of intending settlers, that without any exaggeration the ground here is of the very best description. For scores of miles around the camp, on the left bank of the river, rich pasturage meets the eye, the plains here and there being mixed with plots of rich green clover and grass. The same dry rich soil is also to be found on the other side of the river, which in particular is a, rich level plain over the coast, the land being at a perpendicular height of between 50 and 60 feet from the beach. No undulations exist of any account, and very fewgullies intervene save those supplying wood and water. The whole of the land between the camp and the Waimate river, from thence looking towards the north-east, as far as the base of Mount Egmont, is of this truly rich favorable nature for cultivation. The ploughman will find little difficulty in turning up this rich soil; and in the first instance the surveyors will find little or no obstruction in making their measurement calculations on the

wide prairie-like plains before them. The scenery along the banks of the small rivers, which run their really serpentine course to the sea here, is of the most romantic description. The native settlement is a pretty place to judge from the following : — The friendly pah or settlement is about live miles from camp, in a northern direction, on the banks of the Waimate. It is enclosed in about one square acre of ground, inside of which are divers paths, tastefully laid out, and crossing each other like those in a flower garden. Each family has its own whare and small cultivated plot, surrounded by neat walks. The whare of the chief Wiremu is the first met with on entering the pah. Larger cultivations, for all kinds of garden produce, are at some distance from the pah.