THE HAURAKI PENINSULA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20174, 7 February 1929, Page 6

THE HAURAKI PENINSULA.

PICTURESQUE COUNTRY.

goldmining and timber.

' DEVELOPMENT OF FARMING

(VALUE OF UPLAND PASTURES

tBT OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER. 1 No. 1.

5V portion of tho Auckland Province ■which is coming into prominence is tho Kauraki Peninsula. The extension of new roads and the improvement of old ones is opening this district to tho motor-car, ai,d its unique scenery and the charm of its coast lines aro attracting a large number ef tourists. Tho great success of anglers among deep-sea game fish at Mercury Bay is making the placo quito famous among oversea sportsmen, and will certainly draw attention to tho numerous other harbours and inlets which may offer

similar opportunities. Another and still more important featnro in connection with the peninsula is tho development of sheep farming and dairying, and tho uso of its upland and bracing pastures as a run off and winter grazing ground for the ever-increasing herds of the fertilo Hauraki Plains.

Experience is showing year by year that the valuable grass lands of the Plains aro seriously injured by heavy stocking in wet, cold weather, and moreover that tho progeny of high yielding butter-fat cows cannot bo as successfully reared on low-lying farms as upon the poorer, but drier, slopes of the foothills.

Success of New System. Already a number of Hauraki Plains farmers have taken up-hill farms to work in conjunction with their reclaimed swamp land, and the success they have attained is pausing a marked demand for unoccupied higher country suitable for turning into pasture.

At present quite a widespread movement is going on in the Thames, Coromandel, and Ohinemuri counties to organise for the purpose of examining their undeveloped pastoral resources, to define what lands aro suitable for grazing purposes, what areas can best bo used for afforestation purposes, and finally to assist in making any unoccupied areas suitable for farming purposes available for settlers.

The Hauraki Peninsula may bo said to extend from Cape Colville to To Aroha, a distance of nearly 90 miles, for although its eastern borders from the Thames to le 'Aroha are not now lapped by the sea it is only within recent geological times that the waters of the Hauraki Gulf or Firth of Thames receded from this part, or more properly speaking since this shallow arm was filled in by the debris brought down by past and present rivers and the muddy estuaries turned into what is now known as tho Hauraki Plains. A Thousand Square Miles.

Insido these boundaries the peninsula has an area of about 1000 square miles. It consists almost entirely of bold and exceedingly picturesque hill country built up by volcanic and thermal forces. Tho andesitic and rhyolitic lavas forced through tho now underlying strata have assumed in many cases strange and fantastic shapes, and ono sees thus peaks and pinnacles and ridges almost unequalled in New Zealand. Tho hydro-thermal action which mus' have worked on a gigantic scalo is responsible for rocks and reefs of most peculiar form and, of course, has been responsible for creating ono of the richest goldfields in tho world, extending from far to tho north of Coromandel to a considerable distance south of Waihi. Before tho advent of tho white man this peninsula must have been exceptionally beautiful, for the greater part of it was clothed in noble forests containing an infinite variety of vegetation ranging from tho gigantic kauri to the most exquisite and delicate of ferns and mosses. Wealth of the Peninsula. Its castellated mountains, deep ravines, innumerable streams still make it a most picturesque country, but the fires made by old prospectors and gumdiggers and the operations of miners and timber millers have robbed the district of some of its charms which, however, aro likely to be replaced by tho work of farmer settlers and by the State Forestry Department. The Hauraki Peninsula, containing less than 1,000,000 acres, has produced a very largo amount of wealth. Its goldmines havo yielded bullion to tho value of nearly £30,000,000, and it is probable that its wonderful timber forests and its rich gumfields have produced nearly an equal amount. These natural resources aro by no means exhausted. New gold and silver mines are being developed and show every promise of becoming bullion yielders, and there aro still millions of feet of kauri left for tho millers to handle. The gumfields aro by no means yet worked out. Knowing tho peninsula as I do I arn convinced that iC still has large reserves of precious metals and that rich new reefs may yet bo discovered, but it is plain to see that mining and prospecting, timber milling and gumdigging aro becoming less and less important as years go by and it is satisfactory to know that as these sources of wealth fail sbeepfarming and dairying are growing. Fruitgrowing is also developing and has considerable scope for expansion, while tho fishing industry already well established on its coasts has great possibilities.