A LAND OF PROMISE.

Thames Star, Volume LVII, Issue 15886, 26 July 1923, Page 2

A LAND OF PROMISE.

PROSPECTS IN THE KINO COUNTRY. SUBDIVISION OF LAND. A visitor to the King Country after an absence of ten years, made some interesting comment to a representative of the Manawatu Daily Times, the most important part of which was that while the Government had been taken to task over land aggregation, and it seemed deservedly so, the future of the King Country rested in extensive subdivision, thus providing an avenue for immigrants and the unemployed. Of course the subdivision concerned native leases and these tremendous holdings had been rotting for the want of proper treatment because the Maori owners were not energetic, while the interest was accruing, and as long as they could live without effort. This, he said, was not fair to the white settlers who had adjacent holdings because whereas they toiled to increase the value of the district, the Maoris were calmly standing by and watching the value of their lands go up. « Turned the Corner.”

“I think the King Country has turned the corner for a great future, ’ he said, “and now that the Maoris had received, .or were receiving their cheques, it would not be long before the Agrarian wheel of progress was set in motion. The King Country, he said, was possessed of the material to make another Waikato ,or possibly a Manawatu.

The Maori was a lavish spender when he had money, and he was making good use of it at the present time. As the payments were made in the district, and not at the near centre, Auckland, agents for cheap motor cars had been doing great business. ‘Bv gorry,, this very great,’ a Maori told the narrator when taking his wife and eight children down to buy his first motor car—or rather the colloquial ‘tin Liz.’ Evening Dress at the Races. “The funniest sight I saw, however, was a family of Maoris—evidently the cheque had been made good use of— attending the races in novel attire. The men folk had donned the latest American outfit, including a fat cigar from which the band had not been removed, and the ladies wore very modern evening dresses —it was comical.”

However,'this was significant. It meant that when the money had been spent in the district and the native found himself without the wherewithal to live, he would go to work for the Pakeha or somewhere else and by this process the productivity of the land would be increased, the dependent towns would do a greater amount of business and, to use a beekeepers’ phrase, the ‘drone’ would be gradually eliminated. Hand in Hand.

Towns such as Taumarunui and Te Kuiti, on the borders of the King Country, had wisely made provision for bigger things by exercising forethought in municipal affairs. Taumarunui had an ambitious hydro electric scheme afoot at Piriaka, eight miles south of the town, and were soon going ahead with the wiring of the houses.