Men and Machinery Pave the way for Sheepfarms at Remote Tiroa by Elsdon Craig Tiroa was an obscure, rather unfamiliar name on a map nine months ago. At the beginning of January the whole of the 50,000 acres in this block, situated midway between Te Kuiti and Taupo, was clothed in light bush and heavy scrub. Today, Tiroa is in the news. 700 acres of rolling hill country is sprouting new grass. By next Spring it will be stocked and 6000 acres will be fenced ready for the contractor's heavy machinery to take the first bite at the next big area of scrub and bush.

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That is the plan of campaign at Tiroa, where is hoped to settle 50 sheepfarmers one day. True only 26,000 acres have been gazetted but it is expected that the remaining portion will soon be subject of an agreement among the owners. When Tawhiao and the Tainui tribes were taking refuge in this wild and forbidding region behind the old Aukati Line after the disastrous Waikato War they probably did not envisage the day when Tiroa would be farmed by Maori settlers. Fruit trees, wheat, and potato plantations flourished nearer to Te Kuiti. But this remote pumice plateau beside the western foothills of the Rangitoto Range was hardly inhabited. Indeed the contractors have found practically no sign of human occupation and it is assumed that only the Patupaeareh and the well-fed Captain Cookers, who relish the succulent fern root on these highlands, held sway here before giant crawler tractors and bulldozers began nosing their way through the virgin vegetation. Development has begun beside the narrow road, which winds and twists from Kopaki to the headwaters of the Waipa River. Not far from Fletcher's Mill, the contractor and his family and the departmental headquarters are found. The former are established in a comfortable little cabin on the edge of the clearing. A large prefabrical corrugated iron shed with a steel frame erected by the department, houses the supplies and equipment for development. Not far away, on a commanding rise, the farm manager's three-bedroom house is being built. The contractor at Tiroa is Mr Jack Ammon. He is a quiet, modest young man who does things in a big way and thinks nothing of it. In his work, he has the advantage of a sympathetic and adaptable wife, who shares his trials and triumphs, travels with him in the landrover over the rough temporary roads, and cooks wild pork and venison in a way which would win the heart of any man Mrs Ammon likes the free and open existence at Tiroa, which is not altogether strange country to her. She lived nearly all her life on a farm at Arapuni on the other side of the range, and is pleased to see her three young children getting the benefit of the same healthy country air. Breaking in land at Tiroa is a dawn to disk job. There are five tractors working on the block. They are used to pull the crushing rollers filled with water each of which weighs nearly five tons The rollers are off-set, so the tractor travel in