THE BUSH LAND OF THE NORTH.

Otago Witness, Issue 2667, 26 April 1905, Page 8

THE BUSH LAND OF THE NORTH.

AN OBJECT LESSON OF WHAT CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED BY HAVING THE FREEHOLD.

In the early seventies, few, if any, setlers bad any idea of tho possibilities of the heavy bu=>h lands. Although at that time all the open coimtiy along the coast south of Wanganui was taken up either as freehold or under some kind of lease from the Maori owners, no one had thought of going into the heavy bush land, which acted as a barrier against any further extension. The plan of felling! and then burning the bush, and afterwards sowing grass seed on the a&hes, was still in its , infancy, and I have been informed on good authority that one of the most enterprising old settlers was offered 2000 acres in the Kiwitea Stream at 20s an acre — that was in 1874 or 1875 — and now, 30 years afterwards, it would ha considered cheap if it could be had at £30 an acre, not counting the improvements that may be on it. But that is nothing unusual' in this world of change. How many have passed by fortunes through not knowing the value of the article thrown at them. I was offered a share in Broken Hill silver for £25, which in lees than three years realised a quarter of a million ; but I knew nothing of silver. If it had been a sheep deal I would have considered it ; but silver — what was the good of it, I reasoned, especially at Broken Hill ! The thought of missing such chances hurts sometimes ; but in this case I am always glad to be able to say that there were three of Australia's "wool kings" with me in refusing the same offer on that day, so that if I v.as a fool I was one in good company. So

—This Immense Area of Bush Land — was standing waiting for someone to utilise it in some way, when an association was formed in London to Luy up such land, and send out immigrants to settle on it. The most prominent members of the association wer© the Duke of Manchester, the Earl of Denbigh, J»-r Ashhurst, the present Si i* James Ferguson, and Sir Harry Kimber; and with the advice of Mr Edward Pearoe and the late Mr Wm. Levin, of Wellington, they went to work and secured 106,000 acres, which was known as the Manchester block. It extends from, the Manawatu River at the "Gorge," as its south base, in a north-westerly direction to the Rangitikei River, being oblong in shape, and measuring about 22 miles by eight miles. The promoters formed themselves into a. company, which they named "The Colonists' Land and Lean Corporation," which is generally known as "the Corporation," and who have now a nice block of brick office? in Feilding, which are called the Goi-poration buildings. This is sometimes misleading to strangers, but the borough offices are generally termed the municipal buildings. The terms on which the corporation acquired the land — 106,000 acres — from the Government was £90,000 cash, which was considered to be about equivalent to £1 per acre, after taking roads and reserves oiit of it, the corporation to do all surveying- and road-making-, which, I understand, cost them £30,000 before it was taken over by the local body, the Oroua County. About the end of 1873 (here landed on the block some 250 immiffrants, the majority of whom were foreigners — Danes and Germans. They were taken out to Haleombe, and set to work to form a town, under the supervision of the late Mr A. F. Haleombe, who was the first manager, so that the first town took his name. Tho London manager, v who visited the colony for the first time this summer. Mr C. D. Buckler, said in a speech he made in Feilding, "that there were not five acres of open land on the block when they took possession of it." That is scarcely correct, as there were a. few hundred acres along the western line — that is, what I term downs land — with little heavy timber on it. but partly covered with manuka scrub. - The fringe of this la«d being- wider where Haleombe now stands, I suppose that was the reason why that site vyas chosen as the starting place. Where Feilding now stands there was not much clear land, what there was being low-lyinff, and covered with flax. To show how little there was, I may mention that the new post office is not more- than 20 chains from the boundary of the Manchester block, and is now the centre of the business part of the town, wtich shows what a narrow margin they had to ftart on to brine; into cultivation this 106.000 acres. On January 13. 1874. another batch of immigrants landed, and settled in Feildinor, they being nearly all of British birth. After that the work of subduing the bush went on apace. surveyors and engineers laying off roads and having them formed ; and let me here say a word in praise of the work done by the surveyors in their finding suoh good grades for roads- through such broken cotintry, ctwered by heavy bush. Now that the bush is all down, and r'ie land clear, there are few places where the levels could be amended, whereas in open country are to be seen roads that apparently take you to the top of a hill just for the pleasure of going down again.

The towns were laid out in quarter and aero sections, with a large area of suburban allotments, ranging from five acres to 50 acres. Few of the immigrants had any money, but the corporation sold them a section of land, and assisted them to erect cottages, on condition that they effected certain improvements on the land to show their bona fides, paying interest on the price of the section and on money advanced for building, wiheh they were enabled to do, as they had -plenty of work on

— The Surveying and Road-making—

boing- carried on by the corporation. Settlprs with means were soon attracted to the settlement. I hav-e always understood that Mr Geo. Wheeler was " the first to buy country land from the corporation, but since thinking- of writing this I have been told that it is a disputed point, as some say the Montgomerie Downs was the first. However, tlieie could not have been much difference, am Mr Wheeler was at work on his block in 1874, and had a house and a considerable quantity of fencing erected on it when he sold it to Mr Robert Linton in 1876, and it is noteworthy in that it was the only block of 1000 acres surveyed in one section on the block. Mr Linton held it until 1902. when the Government bouerht it for clos-c • settlement; but Mr Wheeler did not long sever his connection with the block. a=* he returned and bought property near Stanway. which he uaanecl "Biirford," where he has resided

ever since, and established his celebrated flock of Romney sheo«- ajid his herd of Hereford cattle. He has been one of the hardest workers in every move calculated to advance the district. But lam becoming too minute and personal, and must get dowri to bald figures if this is to be confined within the limits of a newspaper article. After this the settlement uoomed, as it was not long before the railway from Palmer* ston North to Wanganui was taken in hancf. This line passes through Feilding and Haleombe, and 1 the timber trade then became: an important item in the revenue derived from the block. I have tried to get eomcf reliable statistics, but prior to 1891 I find ifc hopeless, as everything was included in tho wide name- of Oroua County, out of which has been formed the Counties of Kiwitea* Pohangina, and Kaaranga. I take the following 1

— Figures from the Premier's Speech, at Feilding —

last month. I suppose we must deem them correct, but from the Y»ar Book I cam hardly make them fit. Taking the old 1 country of Oroua, his figures arc — Unimproved value of land, 1891, £1,298,417; in 1904, £2,953,795, an increase of £1,655,378. How has the land increased in unimproved value over a million and a-half? I am tod thick in the head to understand its value, although I have been trying to for many years, and some of the valuators have tried to explain it to me. A year or two ago I was fairly well up on the subject, but I could not get near this new valuation under the old system, and was told that the valuers got another system of arriving at the unimproved value, so that they cai% increase it another 50 per cent. However, we may as well get to figures that we can, understand. Population. 1891, 7488; in 1904,, 11,158; increase, 3740. This is exclusive of the towns of Feilding and Haleombe. Land in crops in 1891, 4388 acres; in 1904, 16,678 acres, an increase of 12,290 acres ; land in grasses, 260,907 acres in 1891, 420,608 acres in 1904, showing an increase o-f 159,701 acres. Total land in crop, 4388 acres in, 1891, 16,673 acres in 1904, an increase of 12,285 acres. Land in grass in 1891. 260,907. acres, 420,608 acres in 1904, showing an increase of 159,701. Total lands in cultivation, including grasses, fallow, gardens, orchards, and plantations, 268,054 acres in 1891, 439,546 acres in 1904, an increase of! 171,492 acres. Live stock: Horses, 7348 in 1891, 9592 in 1904, increase 2244; cattle, 28,706 in 1891, 75,358 in 1904, an increase of 47,647; sheep, 620,368 in 1891, 582,409 in, 1904, a decrease of 37,959.

These figures show at a glance why the numer of sheep have decreased ; since 1899 there has not been a large area brought into grass. In that year there were 43,336 cattle, and in 1904 75,353, an increase of 32,017, while sheep in 1899 numbered 717,450, and in 1904 only 582,409, a decrease of 135,041, showing an increase of 32,000 catUe against a decrease of 135,000 sheepIt is thus evident that it is to dairying that we have to look to to account for the decrease in sheep, and not to the export of lambs.

This large extent of country, in round figures 440,000 acres, now in cultivation, has all been hewn out of heavy bush within the last 30 years, all being purchased, or at least having the right of purchase, and now held by some 2000 settlers. This is only an estimate, but there being very fewfarms of over 1000 acres, I think it «is» fairly correct.

— The Colonists' Land and Loan Corporation — •

deserve, a great deal more credit than they generally get for the success of their settlement scheme, and the late Mr D. H. Macarthur, M.H.R., had more to^ do with .some of the settlers' success than%bey had themselves. Mr Mstcarthur became manager on Mr Haleombe being sent up to the Waikato to start the Selwyn block for the same company. I may say that the Selwyn block proved an absolute failure, through the land proving worthless, or nearly so, and the company having paid too much money for it, so that after spending a large sum in trying to improve it, they ultimately gave it up. Under Mr Macarthur's management, tho Manchester block went ahead, and was soon all taken up, when, there still being earth-hunger, the Government opened up other blocks at the back of the Manchester block, extending along the Ruahines. In fact, the settlers are creeping up nearly to the top of the ranges in places. These blocks were sold under various se-c-tions of the Land Act, but always with tho right of purchase, but with not sufficiently liberal provisions to enable the poor man to get the bush down and the land grassed; within reasonable time. Seeing this, tho corporation stepped in and included those blocks in their loans scheme, as they were getting the money they had advanced on the Manchester block paid back to a certain extent, and by so doing they assisted the settlers on the adjoining block, aiding greatly in the rapid advance of improvements that took place. For that they get little credit, as they came under the common ban of being money-lenders. If it had noii been _ for such firms, where- would the colonies be to-day? — I am afraid very much* as they were 50 years ago. Some of the old settlers have told me of the hard struggle they had for a time, and how they used to curoe the corporation, or rather Mr MacarthiiT, fo. his seeming hardness. From what I can understand of his character, ho had an iron will, and could use it, and it was a blessing for some that such a man was at their head, as they have toldme Jiow, when they wanted more money advanced, he would say, "No!" and with such determination that it was no use disputing-, so they had to start back to thei*farms to struggle away, and to-day how some of those men praise and extol him — - now that they have a nice freehold farm, free of debt, as being ignorant of finance, if they could hay© borrowed what they* wanted they would probably have got so irretrievably into debt that they would ultimately have lost their land. As a matter of fact, a kinder-hearted man never breathed, as if any settler happened to meet with misfortune, such as sickness, or; loss of stock, or from any other cause that' could have been abided, such an unfortunate would never be harassed for payment* of interest, but Mr Macarthur vroulcl do hist utmost to be'p i» every way. Tho fact of his being elected member of Parlamenf? shows the respect in which he was held, and* at that time he wielded great power, a« much as that of any land agent in the Oldf Country. Still, the settlers had faith in 1 his integrity and honesty of purpose. His death at such an early age was a sad loss to the district and to the colony at large, as he was just beginning- to get a grip of politics, and had he lived his influence might ha.\e spared us much disquieting legislation. Had he been alive to-day, with

"what pleasure would he have looked over this 440,900 acres, settled by a prosperous and contented community, each settler able to say, "This farm is mine." I am sorry to say, however, there are- still many mortgages to pay off, a fact which is due to the largely enhanced value of land within the last few years; but as a rule the original settlers are free of all debt, or if they nave incurred more, it has been in order to increase the area of their holdings. I cannot understand anyone thinking for one moment that the improvements that have been made "would have been the same if the Colonists' Land and Loan Corporation had leased their land, or the Government either. I am afraid if such had been their policy there would have been* many thousands of acres of bush still standing, and the-settlers would not have shown the same pride in improving and beautifying their homesteads as they have done. I am certan the settlers would not have been so contented. Indeed, we have now an object lesson in the centre of the block,

— The Aorangi Settlement. —

Although it is in the most prosperous condition, and the settlers have improved their holdings better than any other settlement that the Government have established, still, when you get into conversation with these men they all wish, the freehold. Mr 0. D. Buckler, London manager for the corporation, made a. good point against Mr Seddon-. He said, '1 notice Mr Seddon has appointed a. commission to investigate and advise as to the best method of settling the land. Well, here he was in the jnost thriving settlement in the colony, and yet he found that JFeilding was not included in the list of .places to be visited by the commission for the purpose of acquiring information." Then some one interjected, "We are all here !" And I suppose that is the reason Feilding is not to have the honour of a visit from the commission — not that I think many would trouble to give evidence, except the leaseholder on the Aorangi Settlement. I hear they have called a meeting to decide what steps they should take to bring thtir grievances before the commission. If the commission is at all likely to have any effect as to the trend of legislation, if they have not already made up their minds as to what their report is to be, I would advise them to take a trip by coach from Palmerston North round hy Ashhurst, Colyton, Cheltenham, Waituna, Stanway, Halcombe, Feilding, Aorangi and back ±o Palmerston; and they might spend another day and drive out to Rongotea, which formerly was known as the Campbelltown settlement. If after they have seen such an object lesson they are still in favour of the leasehold, then I doubt whether there is any use in trying to influence them. But there is one thing we ought to be thankful for : the commission has no power in, and in the opinion of most will have little to do with, deciding the question freehold versus leasehold, as it will rest with the- electors at fhe coming election to say what the future policy as regards the land question and every other question is to be. So let v every one get all the- information he- can, and be fully persuatted'in his own mind, and vote only for men, not tools — men of honour^ and honesty of purpose, and who will act up to their promises to their masters, the electors.

ANTIQUA OVIS