THE TANGARAKAU COUNTRY.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9196, 25 September 1891, Page 2

THE TANGARAKAU COUNTRY.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DISTRICT. WRITTEN ISPEOIALLY FOR THIS PAPER BY MR. JOHN SKINNER. ( Continued from yesterday.) From Taumaranui by way of Te Koura to Mokau (inland) the natives are ongaged opening up a good road, and there are also parties working on what is called tho Mangaroa-Stratford road, but this is also to the same end — taking traffic away from our doors. This paltry expenditure on six miles ot roid, as compared with the expendituro from Rotoare to Pipiriki, almost entirely through native land, shows that our Wanganui friends see the wisdom and necessity for opening their back country, and it would bo well for our settlers to follow in their footsteps, and either insist on the Government doing the came for ours as it is doing for that of Wanganui, or, better still, devise some means of doing it for ourselves. As the land to the north ward and east of the Ohura is to a largo extent open land, and could be at onco used for grazing, the only expense necessary being burning and grassing, tho advantages to the coast graziers by its being opeood would be very great, for should a continuous supply of store cattlo be available from this heavy lime country, tho output of fat stock from the richer coast lands could be more than doubled from what it now is, when stock has to be raised on the farms and kept at least three years before they are sent off fat, instead of tho land being used almost solely for fattening. There are now hundreds of cattle that are going, oi have gone, wild ail about the Upper Wanganui, through the owners being unable to dispose of them on account of the distance to drive them to a market, whilst Taranaki farmers are actually getting stock from Canterbury to keep up the supply of fat cattle. At present the only road into the Ohura from the Taranaki sea coast is by way of Wanganui, a distance of over 160 miles from the former; or by way of Auckland and the Waikato railway ; whilst by way of Awakino the distance would be only from 50 to 60 miles, and by way of the Mimi or Tongaporutu is not more than 40 miles, and this through good country, and having over 20 miles of the track open. The whole of the district through which tho Ohura runs is included in the block 1 called Rohi Potai, a district which extends 1 from the Aotea harbour to Mokau on tho > coast, and from Aotea inland across to tho ■ Waikato river; and as its boundary passes r through the Taupo Lake and Mt. Ruapehu, 1 and west to the confiscation line, the area [ is enormous. The whole of this block is : -native land, over whicb Parliament has ' placed restrictions as to the natives dealing with Europeans; and as the native owners 1 are equally firm against selling to the Go- ■ vernment at the prices offered — which range from Is 6d to 5s per acre for land that private purchasers would give from * 5s to 15s per acre for — it will be a long i time before it is settled as it should be, 1 unless means are devised by which the i Government can obtain control over it. " Most of the natives are willing and anxious 1 to lease thoir land, but they strongly object to sell, and more particularly at tho prices offered. Their argument is that when their land is sold the money is soon spent, but the land still remains, and they are, as a rule, unable to understand the letting out of their money at interest. Should a scheme ■ be devised by which the whole of tho native lands could be placed in commis- > sion, and after sufficient reserves were ' made for their owe use the lands were to 1 bo either purchased from them by bonds 1 bearing a fair rate of interest, or leaßed on 1 their behalf, there is no doubt they would * be very well satisfied, and the enormous 1 area of native land now, not only lying > waste, but becoming a nuisance, would bo ' placed in the hands of those who would make good use of it. This is a question * that greatly affects the northern part of our Province more than any other part of the Island, for though the difficulties of obtaining, either by lease or purchase, land ' that has been Crown granted to tho mdi- ' vidual native are almost insurmountable, this large area of land, comprising fully i 500,000 acres of the most valuab'e part of ' the Province is locked up indefinitely; as not only would any agreement with tho i owners, with regard to the land, be invalid ' but the individual would be held liable to a > penalty of £500 for so dealing with them. Fortunately the valuable block of land ■ held by Mr Jonos, of Mokau, is not sub- ■ ject to these restrictions, and the great I area of coal and lime deposit is not, there1 fore, completely blocked, a 8 it would bo if the restriction had not been removed from 1 that leasehold, for the bulk of the coal do3 posits are in this restricted district. The 1 coal found outside the Rohipatai is along 1 the Tangarakau, as far south as where tho ! Stratford and Mimi railway routes strike J that river. Tho nutives state that it crops i out even farther south than this, but in all I probability it will bo tho same seaui crop1 ping out more to tho oast. These would 5 be the principal deposits that would be ! worked should the North Island main * trunk line be carried by way of Stratford ) or the Mimi. The coal here is similar to lj that at Mokuu and easily obtained, as it i outcrops on the hill sides. No coal, as yet, > has beeu found to tho west of this, that is ; on Crown land, but there is no reason why 1 it could not be got by boring, and perhaps i of bettor quality, buc as the general dip of 1 the country is to the south-west it would 1 probably be at considerable depth 1 As there in little chance of the railway ! being carried through this coal country, there will be no harm in saying that it can 1 be done very well without. Had the 1 money Bpcnt in a useless survey been spent i in putting a good ro .d through the country, it would have been far more to the benen t 1 of Taranaki as a whole for a long time 1 than a railway would be, as there is no getting away from the fact that the bulk of the country, though good grazing land, i is not one to carry v heavy population, and the coal deposits can be worked equally as economically from the Mokau. Looking at the broader side of the question, ono cannot h^lp concluding that as a railway is the only means by which tho land in tho centre of the island can be opened, on account of its great distance from tho sea c.;aat, the present route of the North Island Main Trunk line is tho most useful, for though it passes through a very barren country it does not follow that it will not tap land well worth opening, and, although it may not pay directly, it will tlo bo inilirectly by making available for settlement land that could not be made bo in any other way.

Mr Knight, dentist, wishes us to notify that he will be away in Auckland for a few days, and that Mr Forlong's rooina will, therefore, be closed until Friday October 2nd,