THE WAIRAHAPA

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7851, 13 July 1911, Page 2

THE WAIRAHAPA

ITS PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES. .AN INTERESTING COUNTRY VIEWED BY AN OUTSIDER. I No. I. (AA'ritten for tlxe "N.Z. Times/') AVhon Bishop Julius first came to New Zealand his first official duty was an extended lour of his diocese. This evidently impressed him to such an extent that one of his first sermons as a bishop was constructed on the text “What better is man than a sheepr” Since those days tho sheep has grown in importance relatively to a far greater degree than tho man, unless the man happens, to bo a successful politician, a polar explorer, an export footballer, or something else that turns the public gaze upon him. Had Bishop Julius visited the Wairarapa district to-day and permitted his ideas on tho subject to change with the times, he might have found it necessary io seek out a sanctum of eternal rest for the disembodied portions of the sheep (the millions of them) that have departed this life at the hands of the slaughtermen from the green hills and dales in tho shadow of the Rimutakas. AVliatover may be said of the man, the liic of tho sheep lias not been spent in vain, for it has boon the main factor in transforming many thousands of square miles of waste country into smiling pastures studded with comfortable residences and prosperous-looking homesteads. It has brought wealth and happiness to the occupiers of those places, and provided a solid foundation for a stable national development in a way that nothing else could have rivalled. AVithout the sheep the man would have been a sorry straggler in the process of incipient colonisation, and his success in its maturor stages would be nothing more than a vague anticipation, 'flic sheep lias done, and is doing, his share uncomplainingly in tho cause of progress, and it is an arguable question whether the man is doing his in a way best suited to tho development of a national life. That the man has done a great deal must be frankly admitted, for the evidence of his labours are apparent everywhere from the town areas to tho secluded gullies of the far distant ranges. In the mountain fastnesses as on tho gentle slopes and tho level plain tho work of fertilisation is going on, sometimes under hardships and difficulties that are not appreciated by those who live in cities. All this is praise worthy to a degree, and from the individualistic standpoint it is faultless; but there is another side to tin question, of which more anon. Thera is probably no district in New Zealand that affords better examples o', 'pioneering- than tho AA'airarapa does. An, extensive open plain first attracted the attention of tho early sellers, ami in its bosom four townships soon sprang into existence. Around these township; and along tho railway line, which ex tended its length through dense bush towards Napier in tho early seventies, small qreas support a numerous popu lation of agriculturists, but a view from the train, though extensive, .gives a vei. inadequate notion of tho district as i whole, its real conditions, potentialities, or extent. The view of tho hill: stretching away towards the sea some forty or fifty miles distant gives no idea of tho immense resources of the countr) or of its quality. To the whole popula tion of tho Dominion, except tho settlers thereon and a very few others, thi. immense country is a terra incognito, and little would the railway travellei suspect that,in taking a journey seawards from any station on the lie through tho valley in a very few miles close settlement disappears, and a fertile hill country is divided into holding, of from AbCfO to Ib,COO acres. One u these holdings, of 11,000 acres, provides a bachelor politician with sustenance, anc inspiration in parliamentary debate, upon land settlement and tenure. It it a fine estate, and upon its sonny slopes may bo seen some 01 the finest cattle in Now Zealand, many thousands of sheep (big framed and well fed) and a fen holds of deer. Tho. homestead, nestling in an exceedingly fertile and secluded valley, is not a palace, but quite large enough for the owner’s present requirements, and this with a small cottage shelters all tho people required to work the estate, which should be easily callable of returning a net income o £IO,OOO a year while wool retains its present value. The estate is well kept, and every view of it exhibits the shrewdness and tact of its owner as a pasloralist. Not a fence wire is slack nor a gate-post out of plumb, the pastures are clean and luxuriant, while tree and shrubrsheltca-s for browsing animals shade the many rippling springs and afford a park-like pictnrcsquonesa to tho view that is really charming. It is a land cl fascinating contrasts in contour and colour, for there is tho bald green hill, tho shady nock, tho rugged peak, the undulating down, the limestone terrace, and tho meadow eward, all bedecked in Nature’s best array, cooled by springs and rivulets, and brightened here and there by cataracts in miniature. It is the present and only paradise of the sheep, but it is also only the 1 temporary domicile of tho man. It affords a magnificent example of high-class farming from, the individualistic point of view, hut it i not land settlement of a kind best suited to n, real national progress, for men (thr bishop’s text notwithstanding) are better

than sheep, and the multiplication of , men under proper settlement conditions can achieve more than tho multiplication of sheep can ever liojie to do. Adjoining this estate Is another of 15,000 acres jointly held by several members of two families, and here again the evidence of industry and enterprise is more than apparent. Over all that vast estate even a weed is almost a rarity, and tho pastures are a pleasure to look at. Over thi; immense stretch of country "the cattle upon a thousand hills” and the many thousands of sheep upon those hills gaze not upon the habitation of man. The half-yearly muster, or the bark of the shepherd's dog wanting them to shift from one pasture to another, is about all there is to disturb them throughout their peaceful lives. It is ideal fanning, but it is not land settlement. Away towards tho coast tho scene changes, and the land from the pastora list’s point of view becomes more patchy—topographically it is entirely different, and geologically it belongs to a far more ancient time. The limestone hills that surround the basin of the AVairarapa oil the north and east clearly suggest the complete submergence of that vast area by the sea when tho curious peaks known as "The Taipos” formed the backbone of a peninsula running south towards I’allisor Bay. Erosion has done its work in laying bare- those rocky spires in grotesque array, and clothed them with verdure round their bases. Their weird fantastic shapes justify (he superstitious name they bear; but to an Egyptian or a Babylonian people they might have appeared as monuments erected to the gods. Geologically, it is evident that while those venerable peaks paid homage to the rising a.nd tho setting sun, tho no loss lofty Maungaraki Range lay placidly beneath the ocean bed of tho AA’airarapa basin, receiving its deposits of globigevine oozo which now rosts upon its calcareous summit- Naturally, therefore, tho soil for pastoral purposes is not the same in tho tiro places, and the sheepfarmer recognises that fact at a glance. But whether the fact explains the primitiyo condition of tho country from tin Waanui-oru river to To AVharau, as compared with the Mauugaraki estates before described, the writer has no information. Still the fact remains that on one side of the U ainui-oru an enormous amount of work has boon done, while on tho other side the primitive appearance of the country has not been largely interfered irith. It may bo, of course, thai the European occupation of the two areas cannot be compared, or that tho conditions of native tenures applying to tin ono do not encourage expenditure on improvement, for most settlors aro prone, aye, even anxious, to do the best they can with their holdings.

TJio little hamlet of Te Wharau marts the end of a twenty-seven mile journey from Masterton, and here the first and only schoolhouse on this road to the coast ts met with. Its average attendanco is a dozen or fifteen. Mot a jign of garden cultivation is visible, and a bag of cabbages grown in Masterton and parcels of bread baked there aro usual consignments to this incipient centre of population. ' Around here a largo 1 area of land aas ;becn dealt 'with under the perpetual lease system; but only a few of the original lessees remain, the majority having sold out to members of families of adjoining owners, or abandoned their sections - altogether. The nature of the tenure was not responsible for this, for in some cases the land w as too poor and too distant from local markets to be workable profitably in small areas without a largo expenditure in clearing and sowing, and the occupants could not afford to wait for results. In other instances where the land was good the roads were almost impassable in winter, and children had to bo educated by their parents or left untutored except in the hardships of bush life, and in ’ nearly ivery case the recurring crops of manuka outweighed the depleted purses of the would-bo settlers. Some of these holdlugs are still as they were, with manuka scrub growing up again whore it had been burned, and the settlers’ houses arc left untenanted. One of these houses stands vacant to-day at the end of a "blind” road made at the public expense and including an expensive bridge now totally unused except perhaps by a stray deer roaming in blissful solitude. This is neither ideal farming nor land settlement. Around here, as elsewhere, there appears to bo no better selector of good land than native forest trees, and the poorer patches, covering a very considerable area, aro left to the maunka shrub entirely, for nothing else will grow there. Even the manuka is,stunted, and there is little or no soil covering the clay surface. Away towards the seaooast the laud, though not at all of a uniform quality, is good, and deer and rabbits as well as sheep and cattle roam over its precipitous hilltops, undulating elopes, and shaded valleys. Curiously enough the deer aro not often molested by the settlers, while poachers from a distance aro often seen, or evidences of their tragedies aro found in the form of decapitated bodies left where tho fatal shots have brought the majestic antlers to the ground. Tho rabbit pest is still an expensive problem to tho settlers, for the nature of tho country is such that it is most difficult to exterminate them. An abundance of cover protects tho pest from powder and shot, while food is so plentiful that poisoning is an unsuccessful experiment in’most cases. On two stations tho writer has noticed thickly-laid poison untouched where the bunnies were so numerous that he knocked over fifteen to twentv with a pen rifle in a short afternoon ramble. Again, there is tho further difficulty that all the settlers are not equally vigilant in keeping down tho pest, consequently those who do go to some trouble and expense aro not rewarded with success.. Stoats are numerous ir. some places; but they make no appreciable diminution in the number of rabbits; neither do tho hawks, which are very numerous; and both appear to prefer to dine on birds or young lamb in season. It has, perhaps, not hitherto boon recorded that a hawk will attack a deer; but one day recently Mr Walter Kummcr noticed this curious thing happening, and he relates that for a considerable time he watched tho fight tif fight it could bo called, for tho hawk ' was the only aggressor). Each time ho j swooped down upon the unoffending deer ’ ho endeavoured to inflict a wound with either beak or claws; but the deer merely defended itself and .ran, only to be again attacked. A charge of shot aimed at tho hawk at a long range put an end to tho encounter. N Tho vivacious little fantail is practically tho solo representative in these parts of the numerous species of native

birds that only a fen’ years ago enlivened tho thickly-wooded gullies along the coast and away inland too. Pheasants were also plentiful; but now they too have entirely disappeared, owing, no doubt, to tho increasing numbers of stoats and hanks.

Anything in the shape of agriculture, except for consumption on tho homestead, would be a profitless thing in this coast country so far removed from train or steamer routes, nor is the land suitable for anything but grazing owing to its precipitous nature, and in this respect again the importance of the sheep is at once apparent, and cattle are kept in comparatively small numbers merely to keep down tho fern and use up the coarser pastures.

[The conclusion of this article will appear on Saturday/]