THE TARANAKI PROVINCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20758, 29 December 1930, Page 11

THE TARANAKI PROVINCE

• ' \ • _I ■' ■» . V . • ■ A PICTURESQUE ROAD. TE KUITI TO MOKAU. CHANGES IN COUNTRYSIDE. FROM FOREST TO PASTURE.. ■ .>• \:,V . ■ BY OUR SPECIAL COMMISSIONER. ' ■ No- I- ' . Before leaving the King Country and the problems of its rights and wrongs, it. is just as well to explain that while as well endowed as the most favoured parts of this most, favoured land of, ours so far as soil, climate and natural resources are concerned, ifc is still far from being fully settled and adequately populated. The six counties contained within its borders total about 2,000,000 acres, but little'more than one-third of this area is cultivated or in productive use and the district carries much less than one-third of the people it is capable of carrying. ' , So rapid, however, has been the development of public works and • the amenities of civilisation, that very litt}e expenditure indeed would he required to provide for double, or more than double, the number of its settlers, and even its • towns, which are the newest in New .Zealand, are capable of serving a much larger rural population. It is national and world conditions which are affecting the King Country adversely now, and when these improve, as they surely must,. ;■ there is every reason to expect great and rapid expansion all tnrough this promising part of our country. Future of Settlement. ; Supposing world conditions do not improve, and it becomes impossible to «ell our farm products at a profit in overseas ■ markets, is it reasonable to expect that settlement will cease ? If we have to give up international trade is there any argument to show why an enterprising and intelligent people should not supply all their needs and many luxuries and grow even rich in such a land ? Before international trade was thought of, men built up great civiGsations in lands far inferior in soil and climate to the King Country, and with the aid of modern machinery and modern inventions, with our illimitable varieties of food products, we could certainly do better for ourselves than any of the old civilisations could do.

I left Te Kujti for Taranaki by car in stormy weather and congratulated myself on the fact that the road was in good order, and that the mode of tr&usit was far more rapid and easy than it was when I last travelled along it in a buggy and pair. A well-known Auckland citizen and myself were, I "think, the first to take a vehicle along this main KingCoun-try-New Plymouth route, which was then a mere earth track through dense bush. An Old-time Journey. Moses, the Maori driver, was a very capable whip, but •we had our difficulties. Bridges had to "be extemporised over unfinished 'culverts and in one place we had to lower the buggy into a riverbed by ropes and harness up .in rushing water. It was a three days'? 1 journey and my companion at the time will, if he reads these notes, remember ' the kihdly hospitality we received from the Elliotts of Mahoenui, then the oldest of the two settler-families in that fine valley; the big fire burning in the' massive fireplace of nnhewn limestone; - the settles in the inglenook, the games jind the fortune telling. 9 We travelled steadily by car at. about 30 miles an hour, too fast really to see the real beauties of the country, the soft greenness of the Mangaokewa valley with its carved outcrops of grey limestone, the broad Oparuri valley and then that "fine eight-mile stretch of grassy downs land to Pio Pio. As we neared this settlement we were hailed by a friendly young man in a small car, "You can't get through the Awakino Gorge," he announced, "I've had to turn back. There are three big slips on the road and it was raining in torrents a little while ago." He had taken the trouble to turn back five other cars and their drivers .will • be grateful to him when they learn that wa went on and found that the slips had been cleared away by a small gang of road men. Adventures on the Road.

There had been heavy rain, for the Awakino was in flood and so was the Mokau, and when we reached the coast we saw its muddy waters spreading far out to sea. There is a substantial bridge now where we crossed our buggy on an old punt, and Mokau has spread into a • township. My companion wished to take a photograph of a big mob of cattle being driven alonjj the beach and as we were trumping through the sand dunes we were over- , taken by an anxious young woman with her shingled hair ■ blowing in the wind. "What is that in the surf ?!' she asked. "Is it a horse ?" As we looked we saw what appeared to be some large animal trying to lift its head above the swirling -waters and falling back again. We hurried down a hollow through the dunes and canie on to the edge of- f the tide and then saw that it was a curiouslyshaped log half afloat in the shallows and lifting its head as a larga wave swept over it. Wo learned the cause of the woman's anxiety. She had received' a telephone message that her husband was going to ford the Mokau at low water and be home for dinner. He was later than she expected and looking for him she had seen what she thought was his ho«se in the breakers, and what 'she thought of its rider in the flooded Mokau or out at sea can be left to a sympathetic imagination. Changes for , the Better.

This road from Te Kuiti to New Plymouth leads through very picturesque and interesting country, and my latest journey along it shows how great have been the changes during comparatively few years and what changes for the better. The dense forests' have given way to well-stocked pastures, the earth road to a metalled highway, the- rivers have been bridged, pleasant homesteads dot the countryside, villages have sprung up, all the conveniences of civilisation are to be seen along the route. These changes could only have been made b}' a vast expenditure of labour and capital and the full reward for this expenditure has not yet been reaped. • I am sure, however, that as a whol® the investment has been a sound one, for it has opened to settlement great areas of fine land which will carry an everincreasing population and continue to produce wealth while man continues to work it energetically and intelligently.