THE SETTLEMENT OF KAWHIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11841, 19 December 1901, Page 6

THE SETTLEMENT OF KAWHIA.

, TUB EOAD WORKS STOPPED. I WOULD like to express my opinions about this much-talked-of place and of its future prospects. Firstly, men who are intending to apply for sections in this new block must not be under the impression that they are going into a country that is opened up by roads, etc., with plenty of settlers' homes scattered about, and so forth. They must he prepared to do plenty of hard work and rough it for some time to come. Those are the people who will make Kawhia in the near future one of the most flourishing townships on the West Coast: for the land, though broken in places, is good, and will make first-class grazing land, being equal, if not better, than Taranaki in many respects, with a good harbour, which has 19ft of water on the bar at low tide. J must say while in Kawhia for a week I found the people most social and obliging, and ever ready to give any information they could on the place, foremost amongst those being Mr. J. Morgan and Mr. Laiigley. I might further state, for the convenience oi people who are about to visit the. district, that a coach leaves Te Awamutu on Wednesday and Saturday mornings for Kawhia. which is 40 miles by road. The proprietor of the coach is Mr. Alf. Symonds, who will also give any information in his power about the district. There has been a lot of talk about the v-ay the Government have been knocking off men on public works lately. T think the public have every reason to complain. The, coach road over the range in the winter is impassable for vehicular traffic, and mails have to be packed by horses. The Government have stopped all further widening and forming of the road on the Kawhia side, which I consider is simply madness. Here is a country being opened up. and the Government expect settlers to either go there in the summer months, or undergo the extra expense and travel by steamer, via Onelmnsa. etc., in place of keening men on and making this the main road, so that people could travel there at any time of the year.—[A Cor. respondent.]