NORTH AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18964, 11 March 1925, Page 13

NORTH AUCKLAND.

THE WAITEMATA COUNTY. FEATURES OF KAIPARA. A WONDERFUL HARBOUR. NO. IV. [BY OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER. I The Waitemata comity which may bo called the base of the .North Auckland Peninsula, and which includes all the land from coast to coast between Auckland city aru j the Kaipara harbour, is probably one of the poorest, sections so far as soil i>> concerned in the, wholo of the northern hnd district. It contains 392,320 acres of which only 114.089 acres are under cultivation, or less than one third of its total area. It luls only a little moro than 100,000* acres under pasture and less than 5000 acres under all kinds of crops. Nearly all this cultivated area is ordinary commonplace guru land, and yet its stock rarrving capacitv is comparatively high. It, carried at, the end of 1924, 3310 horses, 33,225 cattlo (including 14.520 dairy cows); 46,124 sheep and lambs, and 4292 flics or an average of well over two sheep per'acre. Besides this it had nearly 3000 acres in commercial orchards and a large area* under vinevnvd. nurseries and market gardens. Its orchards are nearly as extensive as those in the whole of Otago, and are several times as largo as those of other important provinces, being only surpassed by the great fruit-growing district of Nelson. The cultivated lands of the Waitemata county are by no means the best within its boundaries, because cultivation has followed the railway line, and other means of communication and not character of i soil, and the cultivated lands have by no means reached their highest standard of production ten- much of the pasture has been laid down in a poor way. From these facts it may be assumed that in the Waitemata county alone another 100,000 acres could be brought into profitable occupation, which would of course add greatly to the production of North Auckland. Certain government officials have recently talked authoritatively about the mistake of attempting to utilise so called poor soils, but when one considers the results that have been obtained in the Waitemata county, and recognises that the gradual improvement in its roads is placing it in easy communication with the greatest city and the best markets in the Dominion, ..there are sound reasons for believing thai there is great scope for the expansion of fanning in this part of North Auckland". Cumlaad Farms. I have seen on the guru lands of the Waitemata county orchards which yielded over £3OO worth of fruit per year, and pasture which carried a dairy cow to the acre, and vineyards which yielded iii wine over £SOO per acre. Lemon groves •that have given nearly as much as the vines, and-if sweet oranges of the right variety were grown on the light sandstone soils they would yield as much as lemons. ■Seed growing is becoming an industry on the Waitemata gumlands and is highly profitable while on the warm high slope's of the Waitakere and Titirangi ranges early potatoes and other crops can be raised very successfully. I mention the Waitemata county, because many people are of the opinion that it consists largely of pipeclay and only 'produces manuka scrub and fern, but it bears enough evidence in nearly every part of it, to show that wherever its soils are well cultivated and properly manured thev will give quite good results. And what has been done on the Waitemata gum lands can be done, and is being done, on the same class of clay loams in every country of North Auckland. I suppose it is a mistake for anyone to keep on telling* the public what advantages North Auckland possesses, just as it is mistaken labour to try to persuade the public that North Auckland does not consist altogether of gurnland, but, unfortunately; 1 happen to believe that it is one's bounden duty to encourage the settlement of onr waste spaces, and to make plain the opportunities there are for the profitable employment of human labour and capital on the great tracts of waste country in this part of New Zealand. The Kaipara Harbour. , The Kaipara line as it is still frequently although officially it is known as ' the North Auckland Main Trunk, is now the, real artery of North Auckland. It is quite natural ,for anyone to speak of it by its old title. For years and years this line only ran as far as Helcnsville and then all travellers, for the north had to take to the, waters of the Kaipara harbour. What a wonderful harbour this Kaipara is! One of its most experienced ..navigators. Captain T'earce, told me that it had a thousand miles of shore line, and when one has travelled by launch and steamer up its innumerable arms, it is quite easy to believe that this is a modest estimate. 'Whenever I drop down from the rolling downs country about Woodhill on to the Babylon Flats. I imagine that lam in a foreign country. It is so unlike any other part of New Zealand, the great levels of' grass stretch westward to wooded hills crowned in their lower parts with drifting sands, the winding muddy river at high tide suggests the Hoogiy, and the raupo arid mangrove thickets make one. think of secret ghauts and lurking crocodiles. .1 have tnveHed by launch and dinghy and steamer up many of the Kaipara waterways, they offer an infinite variety of w-encry and interests. In places one glides between sloping shores of verdant grass, where cattle and sheep graze in thousands ; elsewhere one 'seomsi lost amid endless jungles of mangroves and sea rushes. There are cliffs and bluffs of limestone and wide beaches of sand and shells. Inland Waterways. There is still, something of the old life to be seen, rafts aful scows laden with kauri logs, great punts carrying sheep arid cattle, gum, diggers at work on (he bill slopes; settlers' boats t.sing (ham.els, which are to them both road and railWay. Even the long lines of mullet, nets are to bo seen, and if one chooses one can Watch the corks bobbing on the muddy water or see. the silvery kanae hauled by the score-into !lic. low shied flatties. One of the sights that always amuses me is the mud slide. When the tide is low and the •flat bottomed ' punt is high above (.he Water, men and women, but, chiefly boys and girls, push the punt on in the muddy slope and let her go. There i> a swift rush down the muddy slope, a huge .splash and if you are lucky enough to see now chums do this trick, you may see the punt dive right under the water. If the .southern and the eastern part of this great. Kaipara harbour are interesting the northern part is still more .<-0. because here is the great Wairoa river, one of the wostders of New Zealand; rich pastures made nut of old river flats. AgriCultural and pastoral industries developing rapidly; milling villages turning into prosperous modern towns, and a whole countryside different in a do/en ways to anything else y.e have in New Zealand.