PIONEERS on PUMICE LANDS “Who in the days that lie ahead can assess the invisible asset the creation of which may be attributed to the Young Maori Party leaders in their attempt to conquer the uninviting soils of Rotorua.” Sir Apirana Ngata, in 1932 LAND development operations on the Horohoro pumice lands, commencing early in 1930, have a special place in Maori history. They mark the fulfilment of the chief ideas behind the Young Maori Party whose prime mover was the late Sir Apirana Ngata. Being the first scheme to be started under the land development legislation, Horohoro pioneered the agricultural movement which has achieved the greatest social improvement of all times for the rural Maori. Even for people backed up by Sir Apirana Ngata and an act of parliament, pioneering is never easy. It was therefore with just pride that Horohoro elders, at the jubilee celebrations last February, looked back on their 25 years of effort to bring their lands into production. The Horohoro lands were saved from being a forestry project by the action of Raharuhi Pururu who entered negotiations for the lease of the land at a nominal figure to another Maori. Raharuhi Pururu took this action as he realised that the land was valuable for more than the growing of trees and with the hope that one day it would be brought under cultivation. In 1931–32 the Geological Survey Branch made a field survey of the pumice area and other belts. Horohoro soil it was found was derived from the Taupo shower. It had a generous rainfall which was well distributed throughout the year. The summer temperatures are high while the winter temperatures are low. Ground frosts are fairly common from April to November. Owing to the low temperatures pasture growth in this area is slow moving until after October. The Taupo soils were found liable to develop an anemia (bush sickness) but this has been mastered by the Agriculture Department through the use of cobalt first applied through licks and later through topdressing. It was, however, a handicap to the development of the pumice lands which we are liable to forget and we should not forget the men of science who did so much to make Rotorua and the pumice lands such a great dairy and sheep country. The founding of Horohoro was an appeal to the spirit of adventure of the Maori and to a pioneering spirit which was necessary to develop these second class lands of the dominion. What might be termed the Horohoro system was conceived after passage of the Maori Land Act, 1929. The then Minister of Maori Affairs met the owners of the Horohoro blocks at Ohinemutu on the 29th November, 1929, when they agreed that their lands should be brought under Part 23 of that act and that a portion of the land should be offered to the Wairoa people. This area was 8,343 acres. The Wairoa people of the Kahungunu tribe were introduced to Horohoro in an endeavour to lead the Arawas in their farming activities. Farming in the Wairoa area, it must be remembered, was far in advance of that existing among the Maoris in the Rotorua district at this time. On the 21st January, 1930, a party of Wairoa Maoris, half of whom were returned soldiers under the leadership of Tupara Rotoatara Kingi who had held a lieutenant's commission in the Maori Pioneer