EAST COAST RAILWAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15377, 12 August 1913, Page 4

EAST COAST RAILWAY.

THE COUNTRY TRAVERSED. A NEGLECTED DISTRICT. GREAT POSSIBILITIES. PROSPECTS OF WAIHI PLAINS. [I)T OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER.] No. I. A large number of people in the Southern portions of the Dominion and some members of Parliament profess to be amazed that there should be any public agitation iu favour of the early construction of the East Coast Railway, between Auckland and Gisborne. Yet if there is any railway in New Zealand which has truly national claims for public attention and public expenditure it is this particular railway. What are national claims for railway construction in any country? Tho serving of a large population; the encouragement of land settlement and the development of industries; the advancement of agriculture, and, generally speaking, the production: of wealth which will be shared by the nation. These are legitimate, widely recognised, and irrefutable claims. These are the claims which the East Coast Railway can chow, on a scale not to* be equalled in importance by any otier proposed railway in the Dominion. It is worth while giving some idea of the country which this much-talked of. East Coast Railway will serve, and thea tho public- can form for itself an opinion as to its importance. In the six great counties traversed by the line and the districts served there are 5,715,580 acres of land, much of it among the richest in the Dominion. These districts carry a population of 30,163 Europeans and 10,410 Maoris; they possess millions of sheep, vast herds of cattle, rich gold mines, timber forests, flax areas; they are already producing yearly enormous wealth, in the shape of wool, dairy produce, maize, minerals, timber, and they are not as yet onequarter developed. As Large as a Great Province. This vast stretch of country between, Waihi and Gisborne is larger tlian Hav?ke's Bay, twice as large as Taranaki, and nearly as large as Westland and Marlborough combined, and it possesses, even if one includes the line between Waihi and Paeroa, as part of the East Coast system, exactly 44 miles of opened railway. Compare this East Coast district of the North Island, sav. with Westland in the South Island. Westland has a total area of 3.894,887 acres, much of it being too mountainous ever to be occupied or used tyy human beings: it has a population of 15,714 people, and it has 166 rmles of open railway, connected with the up-to-date sea port, Greymouth j whilst the Government of the Dominion is spending a huge sum o| money on the Otira Tunnel in order to connect the Westland railway system with that of Canterbury. A single county in Southland, one-eighth the size of the East Coast railway district, has five times its length of railway. The Selwyn County, in Canterbury, which is not equal in size to any one of the six eastern counties has nearly 10 times as much railway. It is nearly seven years ago since I rode along the route of the East Coast Railway, between Waihi and Gisborne, and gave a detailed description of the country which tlve railway is to traverse. At that time the people were full of hope that railway construction would be energetically and rapidly carried on. They had Ministerial promises to this effect; they had public statements and private promises of active support for this national work. They have had Government promises in the same direction ever since then; but what has been the actual result? A few miles of open cuttings made at the Waihi end, about 25 miles of line made, but not open for traffic, between Tauranga and Paengaroa, and a few miles added to the railway from Gisborne northward toward Motu. I am traversing much the same country now, and in every district I have visited 1 have been simply surprised at the strong feeling displayed by the people with regard to the neglect of this railway. A Payable Lisa. The East Coast Railway really begins at Paeroa, where it junctions with tho Thames-To Aroha line, and from where eventually it will be pushed westward across the great Hauraki Plains to Pokeno, or somo other point on the Main Trunk.line, opening up one of the richest new dairying districts in the Dominion, and shortening the journey between the East Coast districts, the great goldfields, and Auckland by 44 miles. Tho Pokeno-Paeroa line, however, is not for the immediate future. Aucklanders and East Coasters will be very well content to have their goods and themselves carried an unnecessary distance, providing that they can get a line built through district* which are now hopelessly handicapped for lack of commmTication with the chief ports of the Dominion. Tho 13 miles of railway between Paeroa and Waihi which the late Government refused to construct year after year, and which was only started when the Waihi Company guaranteed the money, ie one of the busiest and most payable lines in the Dominion, and is likely to continue so, because it passes right through the heart of the greatest goldfields in New Zealand— Karangahake and Waihi. So far only tiny portions of these fields have been Worked, and yet they provide employment for many thousands of well-paid miners, and support a prosperous community of nearly 15,000 people, and will continue to do so for a very long period, with every prospect of a big increase as new claims are opened up.

Farming the Waihi Plains. Tho main demand from this part of New Zealand is for the immediate construction of the East Coast Railway from Waihi southward to Katikati and Tauranga. The building of this line has been promised by Government after Government, and by nearly every Minister of the Crown and prominent politician who has visited the district. In fact, the line has been commenced, for cuttings and earthwork have been made along a stretch of about live miles, and it only requires a bridge across the Ohinemuri River to enable rails to be kid on this section. Southward of Waihi is an extensive plain naturally well adapted for railway construction and, what is of corresponding importance, for agriculture. The soil of this plain is derived, just as the soil in many of our prosperous farming districts of the Waikato is derived, from the decomposition of rhyolitic rocks, and only requires ordinary farming to make it productive. I have travelled over this plain in all directions, and I unhesitatingly declare that it offers great inducements to the agriculturist who has sufficient capital to work it. The soil is deep, light, and porous, and there is ample evidence to show that it can easily be made to grow root crops. I saw right out in the middle of tho plain as good a cample of swedes as any farmer could desire, and as good a sward of clover as any man has a right to expect on raw, new Land. The Waihi Plain is about six miles long by about four miles wide, and runs from the foot-lulls to the sea, but the foot-hills are largely ploughable, and between them and the main range is a large extent of easy country, all well adapted "or settlement. Mining Towns Markets. It must seem strange to a visitor from the South Island to see cultivable land right alongside the town of Waihi lying idle, year aftor year. Waihi lias a population of over 6000 people, and is considered one of the _ best markets in the Dominion, because its people are mostly hard-working minors, who require to be well fed, and are well enough off financially to demand the best class of food products, and yet the town liae to import its meat, its butter and cheese, and suchlike things from the Thames : Valley, the Wai-

kato, and from the Bay of Plenty districts. The common and popular belief is that the Waihi Plains, and all the surrounding country, is so poor that it is not worth cultivating; but like many other common! and popular beliefs, it is titterly wrong. The Waihi Plains have not been cultivated in the past, because they have been practically locked up against settlement by the iniquitous old Mining Act, which was so framed as to make cultivation or any real improvement, if not impossible, at least an act of foolish philanthropy. Some little time ago, the Government withdrew those lands from the mining restrictions, and offered about 60 sections for ballot, under a 60 years' renewable lease. Although the land was absolutely unproductive in its native state, and a capital value of from £2 to £2 10s was placed upon it, the sections were eagerly applied for, and something like 50 people are now settled there. I saw some of these sections, and can safely say that wherever the land had been properly treated it showed promise of yielding good returns. Many of theifo new settlers were miners, and too few of them had enough capital to work the land, on a large scale. Still about most of the homesteads, paddocks of springing oats were to be seen looking healthy and vigorous, and tlie grass looked as well as anyone could expect on new land in the last month of winter. The Products of the Plains. A better evidence of what these plains lands will do was to be seen during my visit to the Waihi Municipal Farm. It is the sanitary depot, and of course am abundance of manure is used; but in spite of the old-fashioned belief in the _ power of manure with a strong smell, nightsoil is really not a good manure, and many a farmer on good land uses a greater quantity of real fertilisers than is used here. Mr. Lindsay, the manager, showed me White Belgian carrots, weighing four and five pounds each, and oaten-sheaf which yielded between two and three tons to the acre. There was a fine, stack of clover hay, and in the paddocks the clovers and the grasses were springing luxuriantly, whilst a good crop ot swedes still remained to show what this soil can do in the way of roots. There must be over 30,000 acres of arable country immediately to the south of Waihi, capable of being made into productive small farms, with an excellent market close by. The' land will have to be worked, of course, and it might cost four or five pounds an acre to bring to profitable use, but by growing, clovers, and root crops, dairying and fat-stock raising could be carried on successfully there. If the Government pushed the East Coast Railway from Waihi, across these plains, and offered the surrounding lands in small areas for sale, or under the O.R.P. tenure, they could sell enough sections to more than pay for the cost of the railway, besides settling a permanent population on the land to make it produce an ever-in-creasing amount of wealth.