IDLE TAUPO LANDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15124, 15 October 1912, Page 5

IDLE TAUPO LANDS.

USELESS IN THEIR ISOLATION.

TIMBER COMPANY'S SCHEME.

[BY TEL'EGBAI'H.SrECTAIi rojia>:svoxj>EXT.]

Wellington, Monday. A report will be presented to the House of Representatives early this week upon the petition of the Taupo Totara Timber Company by the Select Committee appointed soma weeks ago, to investigate the propositions made by the company.

The company is now operating a light railway from Pntaruru to Mokai, and proposes an extension of the lino to Taupo for the development of its business. The. petition asked that the Government should undertake to purchase the completed railway or authorise the company to purchase some 200,000 acres of native lands in the Taupo district.

Some 20 witnesses were examined by the Parliamentary Committee. Most of the evidence was in support of the argument that an extension of the existing railroad would induce settlement, while the only material objections were raised by the Rotorua Chamber of Commerce and the Wellington Trades and Labour Council. The Rotorua' Chamber of Commerce opposed the concession on the ground .that railway communication with Taupo would divert tourist traffic from Rotorua. The Wellington Trades and Labour Council objected to the granting to a private company of the right to secure the profit from traffic in a large area of native lands.

■ The area of land • now ■ lying idle at Taupo was estimated at the inquiry at nearly 2,000,000 acres, of which 800,000 acres are native land and 200,000 acres Crown land burdened with noxious weeds and over-run with rabbits. The success of experiments on pumice lands during recent years has inspired a confidence in their productivity that was reflected in much of the evidence, including that of expert officers of the Lands Department. Statements were made by the former UnderSecretary of the Lands Department, that the land could be brought into profitable occupation at a cost of £2 10s or £3 per acre, which is not more than the cost of clearing bush land. His opinion was that it could be successfully settled in holdings of 300 to 500 acres, and not more than 800 acres, and that eventually it would carry one sheep, or a sheep and a-half, to the acre- There was no suggestion that the land was naturally profitable, but it was generally agreed that if artificial fertilisers were made easily obtainable by the construction of a railway, men with moderate means could utilise the land successfully. Settlers already established in the neighbourhood of the existing lino were confident that this view was not over optimistic.

One witness said that over 40 years ago Maoris grew good crops of wheat, potatoes, and kumaras on the flat lands south of Taupo that is now covered with brambles and tea-tree, and that he had grown good oats and grass on the poorest pumice land in the district. Tho fault Was not in the soil, but in the difficulty of obtaining fertilisers and of transporting produce to markets. ' ••

Another settlor said that pumice lands were easy and cheap to work at any period of the year, and that the Taupo lands' would grow the best turnips in New Zealand. It was a sin and a shame that such a large area of useful land should be left unopened, when there' exists so great a hunger for land. The director of the Agricultural Department's field experiments classed the area as one-third good useful land, one-third occupiable, probably in. largo areas, and the balance probably useless. The president of the Botorua Chamber of Commerce urged that a State-built railway from Taupo to the coast, by way of Botorua, would be more advantageous than the projected extension of the company's line. He feared that tho granting of the Taupo concession would relegate this project to the very distant future, and warned the committee that diversion of tourist traffic, woidd be most injurious to Botorua. Estimates were given that a railway from Taupo to Tauranga would cost £750.000.