NORTH ISLAND RURAL LETTER

Otago Witness, Issue 3085, 30 April 1913, Page 16

NORTH ISLAND RURAL LETTER

By John Spens.

TIMBER TREES KNOWN TO GROW TO FOUR FEET THROUGH IN A LITTLE OYER THIRTY YEARS. Clear warm days, cloudless nights; cold on the coast at nights, frosts mland ; a high glass, and the winter is with us. “There is no autumn, only spring summer, and winter in this North Island,” so said a young lady the other day. The barometer and thermometer readings for the week ending April 19 are: —Cape Maria Van Diemen, 50.14, 60; Russell, 30.16, 66; Manukau Heads, 30.25, 60; Auckland, 30.22, 67; Tauranga, 30.20, 65; East Cape, 59.16, 62; Gisborne, 30.23. 58; Port Ahurirl (Napier), 30.35, 55; Castlepoint, 30.38, 52; Wellington, 30.44, 54; New Plymouth, 50.25. 60; Cape Egmont, 30.27, 60; Wanganui, 50.36, 61. Our orchards are now practically bare, except it may be for a few late'pears and medlars, and the leaves of the earlier varieties of apples are beginning to turn yellow, and the first stiff frost will bring them down in troops. The kitchen gardens are now being attended unto, and autumn sowings of various seeds have boon made. Strawberry plantations arc under way. The glory and beauty of the flower garden is not quite over, for various autumnal flowering plants are in full bloom. Chi'yvanthcmmns are opening 1 their flowers, the Michaelmas daisy is a foam of bloom, and an odd rose opens its petals to the radiance of the sunshine. The time of the singing of birds is past with the vast majority of the feathered world, unless it be an odd starling in the highest branches of the great gum trees, and now and again in soft and low voice a thrush may pipe a few bars in some thick bush or other about mid-day. About a fortnight ago I heard a blackbird whistling very gently for a minute or two. The fantails are coming about our dwellings, and they twitter a little, and one or other of them dares to come into the parlour when the windows are open. The Australian magpies are now very active, and at oany morn wake up the welkin witli their ioyful clack-clacking. An odd lark may still sing a little —but only a little. He does not mount on soaring wings heavenwards, but contents himself by sing-songing a little as he flutters in horizontal fashion somewhat peculiar to the lark at this time of the vear. Birds even have various ways of flying at. different periods of the year. The flow of milk on dairy farms is receding fast, and some farmers are even feeding the best of their cows. Sales of dairy herds arc already under way, and the busy season tor land agents amongst dairy holdings is with us once more. Home-separating is being resorted to in numbers of cases, owing partly to the rise in the price of pigs, pork, and young stock; and probably also because it is handier for the smaller men. A good deal of bush has been lot for foiling, and bushmen are now making their axes fly, and the forest rings again and again with the sound of steel. The sawmills on the Main Trunk have recently been rather slack for orders, yet building goes on merrily in many of our towns. In towns like Hamilton, in the Waikato, the house accommodation is short of the demand, and 1 am told that people going there have to

“stand their turn” till a suitable house is vitrant.

A friend of mine was telling; me the other day that Sir Rider Haggard was voicing himself in Auckland on hushfelling and the shame it was to cut down the forest in steep, hilly country, where, after it was grassed, such as at Taihape and elsewhere, it began to slip, and consequently a lot of feed was lost. My friend is a man of 40 years’ experience in the bush, and he affirms that slips do not lessen the quantity of feed. “In fact, in some eases they in crease it,” said he with emphasis. Slips renew the face of the earth; they are Nature’s ploughmen, and they grass over very rapidly with fresh, sweet pasture, and so the growth of new feed more than replaces that which has been swept away or buried un.

“Then comes another question,” said my friend. “We are committed to a progressive policy of opening un the country for man and beast. Where and when arc we to stop? Great areas of bush country are of no value, for building timber purposes whatever. Is settlement to bo retarded because a man here and there wants large forest reserves? Bush country will grow grass. There are vast areas in this island that are non-grass growing; but timber trees thrive famously on such areas, and why not plant these areas with economic timber and fell the areas that will support man and beast.’’

Mv friend wont on to show that economic timber-growing was quite practical. lie assured mo that lie had seen j n the north trees of the eucalyptus order. 6iu.li as the same variety that tlm Ta manians cut and split up for what is called ‘ Hobart paling's,” grow into trees, in a little over 30 years, with holes on them 4ft through, or 12ft in circumference.

“There is the question of climate.” said my friend; “but so far ns T know, even now in Taranaki, where (hev say the rainfall has fallen to nearly half, vet they've enough of moisture for all practical purposes. New Zealand is insular,” he went on. “and our rain largely comes from the sea. or at least it is greatly regulated by tlm influences of the ocean.’ When the Hon. Mr Massey and the lion. Mr Fraser were in Taranaki the other week they visited a place some good distance in the bush from Eltham. and the settlors there are largely sheen-farmers. There is a forest reserve there of between 8000 and 10.000 acres, and the settlers informed the two Ministers that that forest reserve was practically of no use, and, in fact, was greatly retarding the development of the country." It was a great hindrance to road-making, and. generally speaking, would be of far greater advantage to the Dominion if it were cut up, felled, and settled upon by human beings and cattle

and sheep instead of harbouring a few pigs and giving food to a few bircts. The question of the aggregation of land in the Wellington land provincial district has come up now and again for discussion. The whole matter will be sifted to the bottom and a report furnished to the public. It is worthy of note that it is in the Wellington provincial district where the breaking up of large estates is going on rapidly, and almost every week farms arc being taken up to subdivide and resell. So other counteracting influences are at work. In the Taranaki land district the Crown Lands Office are advertising over 9000 acres for sale on the optional system on the 13th of next month. I have been provided with a plan of the block, which is’ situated between Whangamoraona and the Wanganui River, some 20 to 25 miles distant from the former. It is divided into sheep runs running from 934 to 1570 acres. The soil is good, being on u formation of papa, with bolts of shell rocks. It is rough country, comprising high hills, deep valleys, with hero and there small flats, and is, of course, heavily timbered with mixed forest and dense undergrowth. The sections are all well watered, and should work into fair sheep country when felled and grassed. The subdivision of the famous Mokau Estate, which I mentioned in a former letter, has now been accomplished, and is ad\ertised for sale on "Wednesday, 7th May, at Palmcston North. The official name of the block is Mokau■ Mahakat:no, of which there are 25,000 acres, subdivided into 11 sections, ranging in area from 363 acres to 2975 acres. In connection with the “ bush sickness ” in the vicinity of Rotorua, a report has been furnished by the Department of Agriculture covering the two years since they first took up the work of experimenting on practical lines by the various soil dressings to small paddocks. Three of the experiments may bo looked upon as distinctly successful as far as cattle are concerned. In the case of sheep, it is found that lambs are much more susceptible to the development of “ bush sickness ” than arc any other animals, becoming victims of it on only slightly-affected land whereon cattle and older sheep will remain free from it. It is announced that the subdivision of the Mamaku Experimental and Demonstration Farm is now about completed. It has been stocked, and all arrangements arc under way for commencing practical dairy farming on it next season.

Not being able to get what h© wants in the Dominion, a Wanganui breeder of prize and purebred Holstein dairy cattle (Mr John Donald) is about to take a trip to America to pick up something in the way of fresh blood of a high class. Auckland exports a considerable quantity of stock of one kind and another to Australia and the Islands of the Pacific. A good many horses go from Wellington to Australia. One or two gentlemen arc going in extensively for breeding blood horses for Australia. New Zealand-bred racers are taking a high place in the Commonwealth, and the. industry bids fair to develop. Of course, it is very expensive to breed racehorses, but the prices obtained for highclass stuff arc very tempting. When a man gets a thousand guineas for a youngster one. is tempted to think that there’s money in it.

Orchard'ists, I hear, are offering their apples in some districts of the-north very cheaply. To-day I was told by a largo buyer of apples that ho was offered all varieties of the late and good keeping apples at 3s 6d per 401 b case. The Native has a keen sense of humour and not a little cutencss mixed up with it. One Maori had a place to lease, and had offered it to a European. The said European meantime had heard that the farm was badly infested with pennyroyal, and so he did not go near it. Meeting th© Native afterwards the Maori said, “You no <ro my place?” “No, it’s no good to make the money on.” “ Plenty penny my place—you take my place you get plenty penny—plenty penny all over.”