CHARACTER OF THE WAIKATO COUNTRY.

Colonist, Volume VII, Issue 660, 23 February 1864, Page 3

CHARACTER OF THE WAIKATO COUNTRY.

(From the Neiu Zealand Herald)

Tiie existence of Auckland, encompassed by clouds of Maori warriors, has, from the hour of its foundation until the present, been one of sufferance. The conduct of those barbarian warriors has brought that condition to a close. Hitherto, in a country containing some 18,000,000 acres of the finest and most fertile land, with avast seaboard studded with the grandest bays and harbours, possessed of magnificent rivers, and penetrated by innumerable navigable estuaries and watercourses, we have been confined within a belt of some 2,000,000 acres of by no means the choicest of the soil. Of this territory we have made the most; but we could not adequately extend our agricultural and pastoral pursuits ; we could not sufficiently enlarge our flocks and herds, nor grow sheep or wool, or produce cheese, butter, bacon, and all the other necessaries of life. The conquest that General Cameron and his noble soldiery have been compelled, to' make, and are still con-

tinuing to make, will reverse all this. The "Waikato has been already opened. Its mines of coal have come into immediate use. Iron is known to abound, and copper and gold is said to exist. The land is of the richest, and that on the "Waipa, the Piako, and other important rivers, is not less fertile. The Thames, and the East Coast, with the magnificent harbour of Taurangi, have all passed the ordeal of forfeiture, so that rebellion has not merely knocked away our fetters, but has elevated Auckland to a position beyond her most sanguine expectations.

(From the Waikato Correspondent of the Neio

Zealander.) I have always heard a great deal said about the splendid land in the Waikato, but so far I have not seen anything at all extraordinary—in fact I have been rather disappointed. From the glowing accounts I had heard before coming here, I had expected something out of the common way—some rich alluvial soil which would bring forth crops far superior to any yet obtained in other parts of the colony. Instead of which I find as follows: That the land between Queen's Eedoubt and Eangiriri is hardly worth cultivation: beyond this and to the range of hills the land is good, it will grow fine potatoes, but in my opinion is of far too light a nature for grain crops, and grass would be burnt up after a short continuance of dry weather. At Ngaruawahia it appears to be still more sandy, producing like the land lower down, very fine crops of potatoes, but the wheat patches, of which there are several in the vicinity, look very poor, the stalks being scarcely eighteen inches in height, although the heads are formed. As we passed up the Waipa I could see the grass lauds on the banks appeared already dry and parched after only three or four fine days, and where they jutted out on the river, forming almost perpendicular cliffs, the depth of the vegetable mould could be seen, which scarcely ever exceeded four inches in thickness, with a white unproductive sand below. It appears to me that the public have given too ready a belief to those accounts circulated by travellers in Waikato—men who have been carried away by the beauty of the scenery, and who think that every flat piece of land must of necessity be of the richest description. The land in the "Waikato has been much overrated; it is of a fair quality, but not, I think, to be compared to some land in Taranaki, or in the vicinity of Otahuhu.