FORTH AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18585, 18 December 1923, Page 11

FORTH AUCKLAND.

SCOPE FOR SETTLEMENT.

A PROMISING DISTRICT.*

INSUFFICIENTLY KNOWN. By Our Special Commissioner. No. I. There is no doubt about the statement that one of the greatest fields for settlement and land development and the establishment of new industries to be found in the whple of New Zealand lies in North Auckland. By North Auckland I mean that great and interesting peninsula which stretches from the Tamaki isthmus to Cape Beir.ga, a length of about 250 miles.

Since it has attained the dignity of a separate land district its boundaries and its area have been extended, and officially at the present time it contains 4,478,200 acres, but for all practical purposes the public still think of it under its old name and its old limits, or as that part of New Zealand which extends north of Auckland city. This portion of it contains over 3,800,000 acres, which is larger than several of . the Dominion's most important provinces and it is richer in natural resources and advantages than some of the very largest of our provinces.

If one excludes the three counties, Great Barrier, Manukau, and Franklin, which were added to it when it was recently formed into a land district, North Auckland may be said to possess about 1,250,000 acres of cultivated land, leaving 2,550,000 at present uncultivated and unproductive. ' This in itself ia an enormous asset, for it does not mean as is the case with Canterbury, Otago, and other South Island districts, that a large proportion of this unused area consists of mountain chains and hill ranges. On the contrary there* is practically no part of North Auckland, from the Babylon Flats, a few feet above sea level, to the summit of its highest peak Tutamoe, which cannot be turned to farming use. This is one 'of the remarkable features of North Auckland and together with the mildness of its climate forms one of its greatest advantages. Apologising lor the North.

It has been the fashion in the past to make excuses and apologies for North Auckland, to explain that it had no roads and no railways', that its land required experimenting with, and that its climate was not so tropical as some people believed. It has also been customary to label it (and libel it) with catchy terms and phrases and to treat s it as if it were foreign to the rest of New Zealand, or a poor and somewhat peculiar relation. The time has gone by for this sort of thing. North Auckland now has a trunk railway, complete, from the city to the Bay of Islands it has a considerable length of metalled roads, and is building new ones faster than any other district in the Dominion. It has a grsat and wellestablished dairying industry which is expanding, and will continue to expand rapidly. It has a most promising frozen meat trade and I am confident will soon become famous for its lamb and pork exports. No other part of New Zealand has the same opportunities for building up a great fruitgrowing business; it has great resources in the shape of economic minerals which form the basis for new and profitable industries, and apart from all these things it lends itself naturally to the cheap production of food, to easy and ! pleasant ways of living, and to the practical and Aesthetic reward for human labour which should attract to it fEe finest types of human beings. Advertising North 1 Auckland. North Auckland no longer requires apologies or excuses, bat it requires a'wide advertisement of its advantages, and besides advertisement it needs facilities for

making these advantages available. The millions of acres luring idle in. its various counties will not be settled and forked unless its owners, the Crown, the Maoris and private Individuals (who have more land than they can use) bestir themselves to attract settlers, and they 'can only attract settlers by offering foldings at a low price on easy conditions. There is plenty of what appears to be cheap land in the North Auckland district. ; I have before me a recent Crown Lands Guide and from it I quote a few figures— of Islands, 75 acres, capital value £40; 65 acres, capital value £35 v but it is miles from Waipapa and thirteen miles from Oheaewai. At Kawakawa there is broken fern and manuka {country for sale at £2 an acre'. In Mongonui country there is land" for renewable lease in 200 and 300-acre blocks at less than £1 an acre. In the Hukerenui district~Xhere are holdings from 235 acres to 423, acres at slightly 'under £1 per acre, but nearly, all these holdings are accessible only by poor roads. When one comes nearer to Auckland the price goes up. There are eleven sections 'on the Albany-Deep Creek Road in 30 and 40acre blocks at from £6 to £10 an acre, and there are sections near Waikumete up to £40 and £60 an. acre.

If men simply want land it is apparent that they can become owners at no great outlay in the North Auckland district.. Some of it no doubt would be difficult of access and hard to wcrk,' and most of it no doubt could well be given gratis to anyone who will work it and improve it. - ■:

* The small, isolated blocks advertised .as! open for sale or lease by the Crown in North Auckland are not likely to attract any large number of settlers, and' what is needed more than anything else in this portion of New Zealand is more and more farmers. If the various holders of unoccupied arid unimproved; land—the Crown, the ' Maoris and . the , private individual would do . what . city : business people doreduce t their prices to i the minimum, start :a great advertising campaign "and have a"genuine clearing sale— the Notth • would benefit enormously. V