NEW PROVINCE IN MAKING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20098, 8 November 1928, Page 15

NEW PROVINCE IN MAKING

STATE-OWNED ASSETS. '(IMMENSE area of forest. i yALUABLE THERMAL WATERS. FACILITIES FOR ANGLERS[by our special commissioner.] No. V. The present Government has clone a grc.it deal to develop tho resources of the country which the Rotonui Taupo railway is designed to open up. It has already established exfensivo areas of exotic forests and is increasing their area more rapidly than has ever been done before. Tho afforestation officials in their enthusiasm may have planted a certain extent of lovel and arable country which might better have been reserved for farming purposes, but if their expectation of financial results is even in a moderate degree realised the State should ultimately benefit to the extent of millions of pounds.

Tlio visiting forestry experts who recently toured tho country were loud in their praises of the character of the work done and particularly impressed by the splendid promise of tho timber trees already on tho road to maturity. They warned tlio Government, hqwever, that steps should bo undertaken to thin tho plantations almost immediately, and this is one reason for tlio new railway being pushed on at least as far as Waiotapu as rapidly as possible. Stato's Largo Investment. Already tho State has invested about £500,000 in planting trees on (ho route of tho railway between Rotorua and Kaittgaroa, and tho commercial valuo of tho trees is now estimated at several million pounds, so it, can bo seen that tho State has great interests at stake, and year by year tho value of these Stalo forests will increase with great rapidity and at no

great cost. Besides tho State forests, which are being added to each season, there are largo tracts of country immediately adjacent to the new railway which have been planted by private companies and syndicates, and which will continue to bo planted for a long while to come, so that before tho railway can reach Taupo tho total amount of money invested in timber plantations along this lino will represent a huge sum. Then there is tho value of the native forests. It is no extravagant estimato to put tho ultiniato valuo of timber which must depend upon this railway at scores of millions of pounds. No one can give any idea of tho commercial valuo of the tourist, sporting and health resources of (his embryo provinco in tho centre of the North Island. These attract thousands of people every year from overseas countries and each visitor on an average spends from £IOO to £3OO while in tho Dominion. They give pleasure, and in many cases renewed health, to a great number of New Zealanders. Benefits lor Sufferers. At Kotorua alono tho public sanatorium arid tho various institutions of a similar character confer enormous benefits on tho sick uid suffering peoplo of tho Dominion and from Kotorua right down to Taupo and beyond Taupo to the great National Park there is an endless succession of medicinal springs and pools which will in years to come form the greatest health resort in the world.

Tho State has not yet sought to make profits out of these health resorts and very few people realise how generous it has heen in making so many of the medicinal virtues of the thermal districts available for the public. While it. is only Tight that the State should deal liberally ■with the health-giving waters of the thermal region, it may reasonably be expected that private individuals sooner or jater will turn them to profit-making uses. If the monetary value of British and European fishing waters is any criterion of the valuo of fishing waters in New Zealand, allowing a very wide margin for differences in population, there should ho in tho future very largo revenues to bo derived from the lakes and rivers in close proximity to the North Island central railway. Numerous Fishing Streams.

Besides tho six fine fishing lakes about jßotorua this line will traverse for many jmiles tho hanks of the Waikato River, .where it provides excellent sport for anglers, and besides tho Waikato it pouches numerous other fine streams before it reaches Lake Taupo, now reeogliiscd as the finest fishing ground in tho .world. Tho Government recently secured the fishing rights over all tho best waters And there is littlo doubt but that these fights can be turned into a very profitable investment.

The State owns many valuable propertins in New Zealand. It is tho greatest landlord. All tho minerals except, thoso already alienated belong to it; all tho .water-power belongs to it; but in no other part of New Zealand does it own so many f>r such important revenue-earning, or potential revenue-earning, assets as it owns in tho now, undeveloped central provinco i"f the North Island.

If tho peoplo of this country would fake the trouble to realise in some degree the enormous value of these assets there would certainly bo no opponents of the Jtotorua-Taupo, or central, railway. There Would he a great many more ardent supporters. It, would lie recognised that the Government is showing sound judgment •in constructing a lino which will so largely assist to develop the State's assets Bid which will give the means of settling end making productive the largest areas frf farm land now left in New Zealand.