PROMISING DISTRICT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 5883, 1 April 1915, Page 9

PROMISING DISTRICT.

NORTH AUCKLAND'S FUTURE.

GREAT RESOURCES.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR SETTLERS.

The articles by our Special Commissioner describing North Auckland, which havo been appearing in recent issues, should give the public some idea of the possibilities there are tor increased settlement in this part of New Zealand-

j North Auckland is practically a great peninsula, almost made into an island by the Waitoniatu an.". Matmkau Harbours, which bite deeply into its eastern and western coasts, leaving only a narrow isthmus, on which is situated tho city of Auckland. It is thus a well-defined district so far as regards natural boundaries, but its semi-tropical climate, its marvellous harbours and waterways, its varied resources and its characteristic soils render it still mure distinctive. North Auckland is over 200 miles long, and in parts is over 50 miles wide, but towards the north it oarrows down to a second peninsula seventy miles long by less than seven in width. The total area of North Auckland is 3,743,360 acres, being one-third greater than the whole of Taranaki, and nearly half as largo as the great provinces of Canterbury or Otago; but, as our commissioner points out, owing to the absence of mountains in North Auckland, there is nearly as much arablo country there as in cither of the two great Southern provinces. Every farmer knows it is arable country which really counts where close settlement and high production arc concerned, and this fact, taken in conjunction with the mild and genial climate enjoyed by the North, must make it eventually an exceedingly important part of New Zealand. The great bulk of North Auckland lies between latitudes 35 degrees and 37 degrees South, giving it a similar position to that of Southern Spain, Italy, and Greece, but being far removed from continental influences it has less extremes of either heat or cold than even those favoured countries. It has generally been considered that it was owing to the unfavourable character of its soils that North Auckland failed to attract settlement on a large scale in past years, but as a matter of fact the district was so rich in other resources that the energies of its people were directed rather to timber and flaxmilling, coal mining, gumdigging and similar industries rather than toward agriculture. Some of tho richest belts of soil in the North have simply been barred against settlement until all the timber was cut out. The finest dairying land on the Wairoa, for instance, has been withheld from the farmer until the white pine which covered it was turned into butter boxes. It does not pay to destroy forests worth hundreds of pounds an acre even in order to turn it into a cow to-the-acre pasture. Wealth from Timber. Tho wealth obtained from the timber forests of the North has totalled many millions of pounds sterling, and the State, instead of making use of this enormous wealth to build roads and railways, has allowed it to go anywhere rather than into the district from which it was won. So far from giving North Auckland a fair share of its own timber revenues, the State in tho past has used them for public purposes in other parts of the Dominion, and instead of utilising the land from which the timber was cut the State has allowed it to become burnt and scarred with wasteful fires, and instead of making the millers grass the area cut out for timber, it has permitted the worked timber lands to become overran with bracken and scrub. It is much tho same with tho gum lands of the North. At ono time they were the natural charitable aid resorvo for the whole of New Zealand. They produced from £12,000,000 to £13,000,000 of national wealth, and instead of using this money or some of it for the purpose of making them fit for agriculture tho State allowed them to bo so burnt and pot-holed that it will cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to give them back their lost humus and nitrogen and to make them fit for tho plough. As our Special Commissioner remarks: " There is no part of New Zealand which has been more misrepresented and misunderstood in the past than North Auckland," and we can add there is no part which has been so abused and so neglected by those who have been responsible for the welfare of the State as this naturally highly endowed and beautiful district.

Future Possibilities. There aro very few people in Now Zealand who realise the present importance or the future possibilities of North Auckland. Already it has a population as large as Hawke's Bay, and three times as large as Marlborough or Westland; its output of wealth in the shape of timber, gum, flax, coal, cement, and agricultural produce is nearly equal to the whole output of Otago. In spite of these facts it has had less money expended on it for railways than many districts in tho South Island with less than half its wealth production or a third of its population, and it is without doubt the worst roaded portion of the Dominion. The past neglect of North Auckland by the State and by the public is certainly beins remedied now to somo extent. Its tew detached fragments of railways are being extended slowly, but still at a faster rate than in previous years, and the public are beginning to realise its possibilities more generally and to put more of their capital and their energy into its development. During recent years there has been a steady migration of settlers from other parts of New Zealand to North Auckland, and as time goes by the migration will grow stronger. The immense areas of still unoccupied land aro bound to attract those who recognise that farming where land is cheap and the climate good is a very profitable occupation. The areas of occupied but unimproved land which are such a striking feature of the North must sooner or later be worked, and those lands which are worked will be more intensively cultivated. Our statesmen, parodying the American senator's advice, might well say to those seeking a road to fortune, " Go North, young man, and grow up with tho country," for the North must on account of its manv advantages grow in all that leads to fortune. There is every inducement for enterprising and energetic young men to go North— territory to bo broken into farms, mineral wealth to be exploited, new towns to be built, old towns to be renewed, and unlimited opportunities on every hand to establish themselves in one of the greatest countries and the finest climates of the world.