MINING TO FARMING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20074, 11 October 1928, Page 17

MINING TO FARMING.

A GREAT TRANSFORMATION. NEW SOURCES OF WEALTH. STORY OF HAURAKI PENINSULA. 4 [BVT TELEGRAPH. —OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] THAMES. Wednesday. There is a strong tinge of romance in the story of tho development of tho Iluuraki Peninsula from one of the richest goldfields in tho world into a rich field for the agriculturist and brooder of sheep and cattle. N'ew Zealand, like many other young countries, dates much of its progress from tho year when its gold was discovered, and the fortunes of many Auckland families wove founded with the discovery and working of tho Thames goldfield in the middle "eighties." - At that time what might be described as the base of the peninsula, comprising tho northern part of tho Thames Valley, was nothing more than an enormous waste of impenetrable swamp, divided from Thames by a broad and swiftly running river. North of Thames were the tracts of steep ranges and unroaded bush country of tho peninsula. Reclaiming Waste of Swamp.

\yhen tho gold mining industry began to fade in importance a vast work, tho history of which has nover been adequately told, was commenced. This was the task of draining the wilderness of raupo, rushes, flax and cabbage trees, known as the Piako Swamp.

Giant caterpillar dredges with swinging arms were driven into tho morass by the Lands Department, small armies of men drove long straight ditches through the dense thickets, banks were built to hold the river when flooded, until in 1909 there' was offered to tho people farms and holdings in places once deemed beyond redemption from a waste of mud and swamp.

The surveyors and engineers responsible for the planning and working of this feat received far less attention than the managers of successful mines, yet they helped to create for the Dominion, and for Auckland particularly, a source of wealth amounting to vast sums annually, which, unlike goldmining, can properly be described as never ending. Link With the Plains. This rich area, now known as the Hauraki Plains, was linked this year with Thames by a bridge erected over the Waihou, or Hauraki, River, at a cost of £60,000. To this the people of Thames contributed £12,000, and its opening by the Prime Minister a fow months ago definitely dated the change-over of Thames from a mining town to a promising agricultural centre. With an increasingly profitable dairy farm on one side of its house, so to speak, Thames is now turning to ways and means of assisting the agricultural development of the country within its northern boundary, which comprises the length and breadth of the Hauraki. or Coromandel, Peninsula. During the goldmining .era, many great timber enterprises were carried on in the goldl'ields ranges and slowly denuded the towering heights of giant kauris. Guindiggers followed the axemen, and so pure were de-licately-tinted -specimens of kauri gum found in this territory that it was frequently used as a substitute for amber. The gumdigger has given place in his turn to the settler, who is gradually transforming the wooded ranges into pastoral fields. Ten years ago there were fewer than 100 slice]) on the whole of the peninsula. 'l'o-dav thousands of sheep are offered for sale at the annual Coromandel sheep fair.

Vigorous Hoading Policy

The best of the peninsula country is probably the belt lying along the gulf coast between Thames and Port Charles. The development of this portion has been appreciably expedited during the past three years by the vigorous reading policy of the Public Works Department. There is now a first-class summer motoring road 60 miles Jong, from Thames to Port Charles, which lie 3 at the topmost end of thi? peninsula. Settlers have cleared most of tho flat country lying between the ranges and are gradually bringing the hill country into cultivation. Grasses have been established and the conversion of narrow and often dangerous bridle tracks into metalled roads enables the transport of wool by motor-lorries, which return with fertilisers for tho grassed flats. Though it will be many years before the whole of this country can bo converted to sheep runs, settlers speak enthusiastically of the carrying capacity of holdings, particularly between Colville and Port Charles. Many Thames people still dream and hope for the discovery of an El Dorado—for mining is bred in them—but they are now realising that the future development of this still prosperous little town no longer depends upon goldmining, but upon dairying and the raising of sheep and cattle, which, unlike tho diminishing stream of gold from the mines, should give a source of wealth that will swell as each year passes.