A crawler driven bulldozer clearing an access track round a hillside at Tiroa. the cleared ground while the roller is in the scrub. This ensures safer working in country where there are many dangers and the drivers have to keep their eyes open. Hidden swamps, which are not even marked on the survey maps, are the biggest menace. They have trapped more than one tractor but there is always another one handy to pull the victim out. This operation is not easy if a machine nose-dives into a yawning tomo or water hole. It has happened once without serious consequences. On another occasion the tractor crashed through the tangled scrub to come face to face with a gaping cavity measuring eight feet across and 30 or 40 feet deep, and, to teeter dangerously on the brink before it was withdrawn to safety. Hidden outcrops of limestone rock often cause the tractors to spin drunkenly before they regain their equilibrium and plough again into the overburden. The contractors take all these hazards in their stride. Two rollers crush between 35 and 40 acres a day. The giant discs follow in their wake, covering 20 to 25 acres daily and the harrows eat up easily 60 acres a day. Sowing and rolling with three machines cover 60 to 70 acres a day but the work could proceed even faster than this if there were no big fern roots to snag the machines. Supervising the whole project is Mr L. Houchen of the Department of Maori Affairs. Te Kuiti, a man with twenty-five years of experience in the development of Maori land. At Tiroa all the land as far as one can see is owned by Maori people. Some day all of it will be brought in. With up-to-date machinery, energy, and the wonder trace element, cobalt, this land, which was once wasteland, can be made to grow the greenest grass and raise the fattest lambs. Night was falling when the party left the block after a thorough inspection by car, on foot, and in Mr Ammon's land rover. The whirr of heavy machinery, which has been in their ears all day, had now ceased. At dawn the clash of discs, the rattle of harrows, and the laboured moaning of the tractors crawling up the hillsides would be joined by the steady drone of aircraft as they lifted off the strip to bring the benefit of fertiliser to this promising country. * * *

NGATIAWA FACES ROAD DANGERS Road accidents have become an important issue to the Ngatiawa Tribal Executive. Distressed by the fact that 60% of road accidents in their area involved Maori people, the executive wants a more rigorous check to see that vehicles are roadworthy. The traffic officer in Whakatane has commended the tribal executive for its proposals, and agrees that ‘there is a lot of junk on our roads. These old cars are being sold every day. They have got warrants of fitness, but they will never get another’. The tribal executive has also asked for power to screen applicants for drivers' licences. This proposal, said the traffic officer, ‘could produce a workable scheme.’