CENTRAL OTAGO.

Otago Witness, Issue 1905, 25 May 1888, Page 17

CENTRAL OTAGO.

Writing in an Oamaru paper, a correspondent signing himself " Mount Ida," gives the following description of portions of the route of the Otago Central railway :—": — " It is necessary to ascertain what is meant by the interior of Otago. Some people imagine that it consists only of a few acres in the Maniototo plains, and judge the quality of the laud by that along the road line, which, traversing the higher and dryer ground, is shingly and barren, resembling the land on the Papakaio and Waitaki plains. Yet the Papakaio and Waitaki plains grow good crops, and so does even the barren country along the coach toad in the Maniototo; but when you got down into the plains along the banks of the Hogburn, Eweburn, Eden Creek, and Upper Taieri, the land is rich and loamy, almost, if not quite, equal to our Waiareka Valley. The Maniototo plains, instead of being only a few acres, consist of 570 square miles of country, and equal in size to our Oamaru district from Duntroon to Otepopo, and would, with easy communication to a seaport, support an equal population. The actual length of the plains is 38 miles, with an average breadth of 15 miles. Ida Valley is the same length, but much narrower, and has more fertile soil in it. The average width is five miles, which gives us another 190 square miles of flat country. The Manuherikia Valley is another large valley, containiDg 414 square miles of flat country. The total flat country thus amounts to some 1174 square miles, three-fourths of which may be considered agricultural. The intervening and surrounding mountains grow excellent wool, and support a large and industrious, and well-to-do mining population. I might notice, in passing, that the cry of the unemployed has never been raised in the mining districts. Fruit of all kinds grows luxuriantly, and ripens much earlier than near Oamaru, and the quantities grown and thrown away to the pigs for want of a market would astonish some folks. Near St. Bathans is a large deposit of kerosene shale, which, according to Professor Black, is one of the richest known. The interior of Otago, however, is not yet limited. There is as much, if not more, country at the back. The fertility of the valleys of the Upper Clutha, the Lindis, Hawea, and others has long been known, and the wool from Morven Hills, Ardgour, Wanaka, and Hawea is abundant, while the mines at Cromwell, Kawarau, Gladstone, Newcastle, and Cardrona are almost household names. Other minerals occur in abundance. Rich deposits of iron, copper, soheelite— the latter worth some £30 a ton— are also to be found. As far as wool is concerned, I find that the country comprising the interior of Otago is divided into some 40 runs, more or less, for while some of the runholders have three or four runs in one block, other runs have been subdivided."