A RETROSPECT.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15894, 19 January 1924, Page 3

A RETROSPECT.

, REFRIGERATOR AND THE COW. (By "Colonus.") The reviews which have appeared 1 in the Waikato Times during the last I few clays bearing on the progress of I Waikato, as revealed in the activities or the Hamilton Borough Council, the . Waikato Hospital Board, and minor ! public bodies during the year 1923 (now gone west), have proved most interesting reading, particularly to those whose memories take them back a score or more years in Waikato's history and development. There are some things which we cannot view with anything like correct interprotai tion until we get away from them. We have been living at such a tremendous pace during recent years that the magnitude of the progress can best be visualised by an occasional retrospoofjve glance. Even an oilpainting is said to be confusing when viewed from a short distance. That you place on record the fact that the Waikato Hospital now ranks as the fifth institution of ' its kind in the Dominion is indeed noteworthy. The hospital was originally established in the eighties', and the building itself was the product of a converted homestead (bought with the estate). Everything about the institution in those far-off days was of a modest and unpretentious nature. The pioneers were compelled to cut the garment according to the size of the cloth. In securing the admirable site they did the first Hospital Board have handed down a permanent legacy for which future generations will bless them. It is a permanent reminder of Waikato's progress when to-day one views the massive pile of buildings . embraced in the institution, and realises that the daily average of patients is 1 190, the total staff 142, and the expenditure during the year approximately £50,000, while the rateable value of the hospital district has increased to £36,000,000. In the rosiest expectancies in the minds of residents of 25, or even 20 years ago, such advancement as has been revealed in your recent columns was never dreamed of. Much of Waikato's 1 land was then in the hands of The Assets Realisation Board, ! which was formed at the instance of the State for the purpose of assisting the Bank of New Zealand to recover its financial equilibrium; the refrigerator was only beginning to make the power of its wonderful.magic felt; the possibilities' of Waikato lands, backed up by favourable climatic conditions, was far from being thoroughly realised for dairying purposes; the operations of that beneficial legislation embraced in the Advances to Settlers' Act was but in its infancy, and altogether New Zealand, and the Waikato in particular, possessed a much more dismal outlook than it does to-day. The reader probably asks, "how did the people live?" They did not live, they existed; the only solace was that almost everyone was a partner in distress. It is on record that 7000 applications were about this time tiled for employment on New Zealand railways at a wage not exceeding 7s a day, with vastly different cqnditions than now prevail. Thousands had been lured tc Australia by the gold fever and the Melbourne land boom, boats conveying them as low as £1 per head. Flax, kauri gum, Hie timber industry, and gold-mining were the main industries in the Auckland province. At the time of what is known as the mining boom at Waihi, Hamilton and Cambridge were ' towns of similar size, with a population of 1500 each, and quite 500 of the manhood from each town departed to these pastures. A millonium embracing "eight hours work, eight hours play and eight bob a day" was occasionally dreamed of. But to return to your very admirable and con- j vincing review of the activities and j progress covered by the past year's operations in the Borough of Hamilton. To read that Hamilton motor vehicles are now registering close to the 5000 mark, that one and a quarter millions represents the value of buildings erected in tlic borough during the last five years, that loans aggregating a quarter of a million pounds are being spent in borough activities, and to realise that the population is 15,000 and the capital value of the borough at least five million pounds, causes us lo recognise that the "despised Waikato" of a few years ago is a dream past and gone. , for the cause of the transformation, we must again look to Hie reflex action of the Refrigerator and tho Cow. Before the advent of this combination there was no regular monthly cheque for the farmer, no regular payment for the storekeeper; practically no progress of any kind. Butter . at 4d a pound, eggs as low as 4d a dozen, potatoes -'is Gd a sack, and , everything from the farm at equally starvation rates, did not provide the incentive or money for top-dressing. , Wages and living naturally were in keeping. During these times an ex-

tensive Are laid waste the greater portion of Hamilton's business area. One storekeeper, in assessing his losses for insurance purposes, placed so many kegs of butter on the list, charging at the rate of Gd per lb. After some debate, and the counting of iron hoops in the cellar, the claim was recognised, the storekeeper remarking that in his many years of experience it was the only occasion on which his dealings in butter had been profitable over the whole year. Those who possess memories' taking them back to these limes will heartily endorse the fitness c-f proceeding with the erection uf the proposed monument to Mr Richard Reynolds. It is not very far distant to the time when Ihe slationmaster and one porter comprised the complete ouilil at the Hamilton station. It is also a well-remembered fact that an Auckland illustrated paper presented lo its' readers a photograph of "a busy scene at Frankton Junction," depicting one train arriving from the north and one from the south, the slationmaster heralding one train and Ihe porter signalling the other, while the only other occupant of the platform was a dog, not a solitary passenger being in evidence. Twenty years ago

Hamilton Was a Village with a doubtful future; to-day it ranks as the tenth town in New Zealand. If is the headquarters of the fifth largest postal diislrict in the Dominion, and it is staled that the business done by at least one of our leading banking institutions ranks as fifth in flic Dominion. When the tremendous asset in Ihe. shape of the waterways of the YVaik.'ito basin begin to be developed, together with the certainty of Ihe growth or the past 20 years being repealed, who dare ridicule the thought that Hamilton within the next couple of decades will bo the fifth city within the Dominion. When that time arrives those of the old hands who are still amongst Ihe land of the living will lake their hats off to the "refrigerator and the cow."