SETTLING THE KING COUNTRY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13647, 15 January 1908, Page 8

SETTLING THE KING COUNTRY.

ONGARUE TO MATIERE.

NEW DAIRYING DISTRICTS.

IMPROVED FARM SETTLEMENTS

TARANAKI-AUCKLAND RAILWAY

NO. VI.

BY OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER.

From Te Kuiti I went on. to Ongarue and made an excursion into the Qhura district along the route of the long-delayed Ongarue-Stratford railway. When last I journeyed in this direction it was winter time and our horses had to wade through soft papa mud for day after day. In the length of somewhere about 120 miles there was not 10 miles of metalled road. A day's journey was a heavy' one if it exceeded 15 miles, and we had to leave jaded horses behind us at every 'stage.' I well remember that ride. It made me realise as nothing else- could the tremendous drawbacks due to bad loads. If the settlers throughout the King Country, where there is not one solitary metalled highway, did not possess strong hearts 'and enduring bodies there would be no farming of any kind carried on in all that great stretch of fine count)y. It is not altogether the £5, or £6, or £10 per ton freight, with which these men are unduly and unjustly taxed owing to the Government's failure to provide ordinarily fair highways. It is the terrible depression which bad roads cause, the forced isolation, the physical hardships. I would like to make every , individual member of Parliament, eveiy public man, every city worker, realise the importance of-good roads; but really the . only way to do so would Ik; to compel them to ride from Ongarue to Stratford, or from Te Kuiti toWaitara, or from To Awamutii! to Kawhia, or from Kawhia to Kiritehere in winter time. FINE DAIRYING LAND. The public have an idea, that the first part of the Ongarue to Stratford route passes through poor land. It is true there is pumice country- on the edges of the Ongarue Valley, but there is beautiful grass country within a mile north of the route right through from Taugarakau to a mile or two from the Main Trunk. I had to find this out by experience. - '-■'."

When I reached Matiere, Mr. Hunt, one of the loading settlers there, .undertook to show me some •of the country : away, from the main road. ■•■ •■•■.•

" You can't form any opinion of ; the district by travelling on the main road,'' he said, "because all the frontages belong to the Maoris, and nothing has been done except, in a few patches to show the capabilities of the soil."

Wo rode out from Matiere into the Whenuakuia and Mango-papa Valleys, all more or less magnificently grassed' and I closely settled. We went back parallel with the main road, and the route of the proposed railway, almost to Ongarue. and it was a revelation to me. ' On each side of the main road over which I had travelled that morning, scrub and fern and bush make a solitary wilderness; and mark the results of Maori ownership. Outside this mile-wide fringe, wherever the white settler has got to work, is luxuriant pasture and newly made dairy farms. Such cocksfoot— a growth si the finest clovers and English grasses, as could not be beaten anywhere in New Zealand. It is not rough country by any means. It consists of low, easy-sloped hills, intersected by a network of faireized and very beautiful valleys. We rode towards the head of the Mangapapa Valley to within three miles of the Main Trunk, through rich pasture all tiie way. The Te Kuiti Head branches* from this valley into the Mangakaliikatea and Waukaka Valleys, and runs through Aria into Te Kuiti, a distance of some 46 miles of magnificent dairying and sheen country. HELPING NEW SETTLERS. Nearly the whole of this Matiere to Te Kuiti Road is settled—largely under the improved farm settlement system. 1 must. acknowledge that here, as in almost every other suitable place where this method l has bean, tried, it has proved a great success. _ The Government has paid the men for feiling the bush, found money for fencing arc! grass seed, mid has advanced up .to £30 to build a cottage. These costs have been added to the capital. value of the land, and the owners have paid four per cent, on the total as rent. Opponents of our land system can say what they like about this method. It 'is sound and good, arfd it gives a man without capital a chance of settling on the land. I found on inquiry that the Government had paid about 25s per acre for felling the bush, about 4s per chain for fencing, and 15s per acre for grassing, the total, with the value of the land included, being about £4 an acre. Four per cent, on £4 an acre for fenced and grassed land is about as cheap as anyone can expect, and utterly dispels the argument raised by a certain class of people that all land in New Zealand is too dear for farming purposes. The land is of excellent quality. One could see that by the herbage it produced. All of it is capable of being grassed, and much of it is ploughable. Nearly every farm has it* alluvial flats, and nearly every padaock has its spring or its running creel; I made careful inquiries as to its carrying capacity, and was assured that much of it wculd carry a dairy cow to two acres, and that averagely it could be reckoned at two to three sheep an acre land. Three sheep an acre land, at little over 3s an acre rental, or £4 an acre value! What will South Island pastoralists think of it when they are paying at the rate of £5 and £7, and up to £10 per acre for sheep land'/ As 1 mentioned, there is a stretch of over 40 miles of this land north of the OngarueStratford railway route, and a stretch of nearly the same distance south of it where the land, though a little more broken, perhaps, -s almost, if not equally, as fertile. Some of the Waikaka and' Mangakahikutea settlers, who took ,up land under the improved farm. system, started practically without a penny, and are now milking 20 and 30 cows, and are drawing their j cheques for a round sum regularly from the Nihoniho or the Matiere dairy factories. They had to endure hardships and isolation' at first: they have to endure the misery of vile winter'roads even now, but they are prospering, and I reckon that a system which will benefit such men and make waste land productive at the same time is worth extending. On our return journey we went down the Whenuakura Valley to the Waikaka, and thence via Nihoniho back to Matiere. It was a long, hot ride, but I was well repaid for the labour, because it convinced me that settleable land and good land exists close to the route of the Ongarue-Stratford railway route, right to within touch of the Main Trunk line, and if anyone wishes to divert this route under the impression that for 14 or 15 miles from Ongarue there is a stretch of poor country, just let them take the ride .1 took, and they will be straight-, way converted. MAORI FRONTAGES. . Now, as to the Maori frontages along the main road. I mentioned, that being for the most part in scrub and fern, which has been burnt again'and again, they give an impression of barrenness, or, at any rate, of poverty. . About Matiere the Government have bought some of these Maori frontage blocks, and in other cases private individuals have leased blocks from the Maoris. 1 saw some of this poor-looking ountry, which had been farmed. Being o]>en country, it was ploughable, and « well-known settler had leased it with a view of-raising crops for his stock. The fern was cut, burnt off, and the land was ploughed once and harrowed. Turnip seed was sown

I broadcast, with |cwt of boned us t per acre, r to "facilitate hand-sowing, and a very fair crop of' turnips resulted, which served to top off a, good number of cattle. After the' turnips were fed off, the land was again ploughed, and sown with oats, which gave a return of two tons of oaten sheaf chaff per acre then the land was sown down with clover, ryegrass, cocksfoot, Timothy, and other English grasses. I saw the result myself—as fine.a sward,as any farmer could wish to sec. " I counted the bead of stock .on it;, it was carrying slightly over a beast to the acre, and they -could not keep .the feed down. There are tens of thousands of acres of this sort of ;land alongside.the Ongarue-Stratford Road, and. it is being leased. at from Is to 2s.per acre, with perhaps an odd sixpence, more in the vicinity of townships or creameries. FOR LAND-SEEKERS. It,would be worth the while of any person interested in obtaining land to make a journey along this Ongarue-Stratford Road. Not a rush through, because nearly everything worth seeing would be missed ; but a journey of inspection with open eyes and open mind. There are quite a number of by-roads running northward and. southward opening up numberless settlements, where men have already carved out grass farms from the bush,- and where very comfortable homesteads are already established. By examining wheat pastures these are to be seen. By talking with the settlers as to results obtained, "a. visitor can soon get a- good idea of tlti country; and, moreover, lie can find out the quality of land that is yet unoccupied. . Considering that there are about three million acres of land within a' reasonable distance of the main road,--and not'more than about three thousand people-all told upon it, there is ample room 'for. intending settlers. : . , The people along; the- road, ate most hospitable, and ai^e'naturally interested in encouraging far-. iners to settle in their midst. They .recognise tiiat every liew resident will-help in the matter of "'making, roads, and Compelling ;tiie construction of the railway. They ' r'caiisc, too,, that .with additional population will come better educational and postal facilities. In this new country there is always room, and a welcome for newcomers, and,' without doubt, there is profit- | able scope for energy and capital open to j anyone who knows how to handle land. I THE ONGARUE-STRATFORD BAIL- ! way j With regard to the Ongarue-Stratford I railway, it is impossible to refrain from 1 reproaching the Government for their lack I of enterprise in- pushing forward this im- ; portant work. One has only;to. take into consideration the. magnitude of the interests ! involved to. realise that this railway will be of infinitely greater benefit"to the*nation than, any of the * railways under construction in the South island, and it is decidedly unpatriotic and unbusinesslike for any M.P. to let private interests.'or local votes tempt him to expend large sums on branch lines in the South whilst this great work remains uncompleted. : ' In the first place the railway . would form a means of communication between the province of Auckland and the province of..Taranaki, which 'nave great and growing trade relations., In , the" second place "it' would give the people : of 'the west coast, from Palmerston North lip; to New Plymouth, communication with the North. Thirdly, and stronger, perhaps,' - than any other reason, it would open, up , vast areas of excellent land,' help in its settlement, ' help in its development, and, therefore, add enormously to the wealth of the nation.