NORTH AUCKLAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20713, 5 November 1930, Page 13

NORTH AUCKLAND.

TANGOWAHINE DISTRICT. PROBLEMS OF ROADING. FARMING FOR WOMEN. - A STRIKING EXAMPLE SHOWN/ [bv our special commissioner.] No. VI. While at Dargaville I paid a visit to the new Government settlement at Tangowahine, which is situated about seven or eight miles further up the Wairoa Valley. This settlement consists of 3600 acres, and embraces the Coleman and Hawkins Estates, which were subdivided and thrown open for ballot several months ago. The entire block was cut up into about 20 holdings, most of which average about 180 acres in size, and these were sold or leased to applicants at from £l4 to £24 per acre for tho better and smaller holdings, down to £5 per acre for the larger areas of more or less hilly land. After examining some of the holdings I am of the opinion that the price asked by tho Lands Department is quite reasonable and would be considered cheap in any other part of New Zealand. The holdings include about 50 per cent.rich river flat land, together with the same proportion of easy hill country. Tho river flats were fairly well drained by the original owners, and have received further draining by the Railway Department. Practically all the flats are in grass, as is tho hill country, so that the new settlers had fair pasture to start with, which "can be quickly improved by top-dressing with fertilisers and by closer grazing under better subdivision into smaller paddocks. Roading New Settlement. The district has good means of communication, because the Waiotira-Darga-villo railway runs through it, and the Dargaville-Whangarei Road, now a wellgraded and well-metalled highway, fringes its borders. The fly in the ointment so far as the Tangowahine settlement is concerned, as in many other recent subdivisions by the State, is to be found in the lack of efficient access roads. Ihese Lave been x'oughly formed across the drained swamp country, but have not been metalled, and all through the winter and even now in late spring are boggy and muddy, as I saw for myself. Now, ;f the original owners of these two estates had endeavoured to cut them up for closer settlement tho State would have compelled them to form,' drain and metal every chain of road before their subdivision plans would be passed, and, further, all culverts, drains and metalling would have to be up to Public Works specifications. This means . that they would have to be done thoroughly and expensively. Why should the State offer holdings for sale under conditions not allowable to private individuals, and -why should it spoil a very fine and promising settlement for lack of a few thousand pounds spent on providing decent roads ? Floundering Through Mud.

Even. if it had weighted the holdings with the extra cost of metalling it would have been cheaper and better all round than leaving the new settlers to flounder through mud and mire at the very beginning of their work, when they have to cart timber for their houses, wire and posts for their fencing, and such like things. And, apart from this, can it be called good policy to hamper land improvement at a time when it is most needed, when the whole purpose of buying estates for close settlement is to encourage this improvement and. to increase production ? Nothing I know tends more to depress settlers and to handicap their efforts than bad roads, and it is high time the Government compelled the Lands Department to alter its methods in this respect. Certain officials inav argue that the settlers should metal this class of road at their own expense, but is it reasonable to expect settlers who need every penny they can raise to build their houses, to buy stock and the scores of other things needed to make- their holdings productive. and, at the same time, find large sums of money to metal roads which, after all, are State property ? Careers for Girls. On this Tangowahine subdivision I had the pleasure of meeting two girl settlers who are solving the problem of a career for themselves by taking to farmings They are Miss Ivy and Miss Pearl Carpenter, and they are both in the early twenties; fine specimens of New Zealand girlhood, capable, self-reliant and well versed in all farming lore. Their father told me that when he asked his daughters what class of work they would like to take 'up, and whether they would like him to start them in seme town business or billet, they emphatically declared for life on the land. They put in applications for one of the newly thrown open Tangowahine sections and were lucky enough to draw a holding of 132 acres, and a very good holding, too. They started on their new farm about 12 months ago, living in a plain little shack and milking with aid of a boy a herd of 50 cows by hand.They now have a good milking shed, with a milking machine and other accessories, and have added to their herd ,and suo cessfully reared a number of good calves,Pioneering the Way. It seems to me that these young ladies have solved to some extent the problem some parents are faced with, as to what must be done for their daughters; and, further, they have pioneered the way for many of their sex who want occupations, but like their independence. There is no reason why girls should not take on farming, especially dairy fanning. As a matter of fact, much of the work at present done on New Zealand dairy farms is done by girls and woman. They milk by hand; they work milking machines; they feed calves and do a host of similar things. It is not to be expected that they can break in raw land; but where a farm is already under pasture, and fenced, and particularly when it is well arranged and equipped with hydro-electric-power and the usual modern machinery, there need bo no strenuous physical labour, or, at any rate, none which cannot be done by contract Or by hired men. In t'lio case of the Misses Carpenter they have had the advantage of good training on their father's farm, but, as English girls have shown during and since the war days, there are plenty of opportunities for learning farming by working on farms. It appears to me that- farming as a career for girls has a good deal in it, and without doubt such a new departure ought to stimulate many young men who are at a loose end now to go on to the land.