THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1924. NORTHLAND'S NEEDS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18630, 11 February 1924, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1924. NORTHLAND'S NEEDS.

The formation of a North Auckland Progress League comes not a day too soon. Indeed, it is rather a belated awakening to the need for vigorous co-operation in the furtherance of common ends. Difficulties of communication have hitherto made some parts of the North strangers to other parts. The northernmost area has been largely forgotten by the southern district abutting on Auckland city, and east and west have led practically separate existences. That day passes. Railway extension has already linked some northern counties to the city, and roads have opened across the island. A scheme is afoot to add to these lines of access and to improve those that exist. Soon no region of the North will be far from any other nor from the outer world. The League just formed is' a token of this drawing together. It may well prove also an important agency for future development. The story of Northland gives full proof of the need for fostering nurture. To possess natural capabilities is not enough : the human factor is equally essential to prosperity. The North so long neglected has had natural attractions for settlement ever since the day that it alone was virtually all that the world knew of New Zealand. Voyagers and traders and settlers, coming to a new country, made haven and home in this narrow stretch of land jutting into tropic seas. But that day -could not last. The expanses .of the later-known south drew the adventure of many a special settlement. The colony's Government withdrew from the North, first to the Waitemata and then to Port Nicholson. The south was soon peopled and prosperous and the far North was left to drowse amid its memories. But the southward impulse stayed at length, and went north again. It gathered momentum as it swept along, and at last re-entered the forgotten peninsula that had been the scene of New Zealand's earliest life.

It is a peninsula rich in natural resources. It possesses in its four million or so acres a variety of soils capable of yielding enormous agricultural, dairy and; orchard products. Where once the Maori grew in abundance his taro and kumara and potato supplies, and the early European settler reaped wheat enough to keep his grain mills busy and to send flour to the needy South, a manifold rural activity is sure of a generous reward. On the North's waterways the cream-boats ply heavily laden, and dairy products are being handled in increasing quantities. Magnificent orchards abound, and flocks and herds multiply apace. There was a time when the productivity of these northern lands was jocosely measured in numbers of acres to the sheep; but the jest has lost all point, in view of comparisons now possible. North Auckland's million and a-half acres in pasture and crops are proved to have a carrying capacity of well over two sheep, to the acre. Otago's capacity is considerably less than one sheep per acre, Canterbury's a little over one sheep per acre; and even Taranaki's excellent stockcarrying capacity is surpassed in North Auckland by nearly a quarter of a sheep to the acre. The facts of such an illuminating comparison, too little known, emphasise the wealth in the North's pasture lands now occupied, and point to further prosperity resulting from an increase in farming. An influence greatly contributory to this present and prospective wealth is Northland's climate. It is one of the best in all the world. With an average temperature of just over 61 degrees and a mean annual rainfall of 60 inches, it makes the area highly productive as well as pleasantly habitable. Beside its agricultural and pastoral resources, the North has still great wealth in timber, gum, flax and minerals, to say nothing of its fisheries. The advocates of such a district's development have no need for apology or misgiving.

They have scope for their enterprise in the task of attracting settlers to the North's idle lands. Approximately three million acres are without settlement. They cannot, of course, all be turned into farms: native forests of great value will rightly be left in possession here and there. But these bush-clad regions occupy in all only a small portion of the idle lands, and the remainder's greater part is well adapted for agricultural and pastoral use. Some of it is under offer at prices that must be accounted cheap. A recent Crown Lands guide-book quotes small blocks in the Bay of Islands at £40 and £35 an acre. At Kawakawa there is broken fern and manuka country for £2 an acre. In Mongonui land is available in 200 and 300acre blocks at less than £l an acre. There are holdings from 235 to 423 acres in the Hukerenui district at slightly under £l an acre. It is obvious that these prices are affected by the poor accessibility of the land offered, for nearer Auckland the range of prices is considerably higher. The League should undertake a vigorous publicity campaign —even in New Zealand there is need for itthat the forgotten North may come fully into its own. In addition, there should be persistent

urging upon the Government of a policy of northern settlement. The Crown is a large landowner. It should expedite the opening up of its own idle areas, as well as encourage Maori and European owners to,

place land upon the market at a reasonable figure. The League's task includes also the formulation of a complete plan of communications, to be placed in a reasonable form before the Minister for Public Works and Railways. The stimulation of local bodies is equally desirable, so that the utmost development through self-help may be attained. A magnificent future, by no means remote, awaits the North; its hastening requires only the wise and vigorous co-operation of the Government, local bodies, and private citizens. In the launching of the League is a happy augury for local activity.