THE WEST COAST AGAIN.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 780, 1 April 1910, Page 8

THE WEST COAST AGAIN.

■ " ' ITS ' POSSIBILITIES. Mr. G. S. Hill, head of the butter department of -Messrs. J. B. MacEwan and Co., Ltd.,, lias returned from a 11115111058 visit' to" the ' West Coast 'of'tho South Island with an enthusiastic belief in the possibilitios of. that part of New Zealand as a field for dairying. Settlement iii the country there was retarded for' a • long ' time by the wholesale reserves made for the benefit of the Midland Kailway Company, now a,food many years defunct. Mr. Hill, like other visitors, was struck' with the natural fertility of the land and fonnd it difficult , to understand how it had been left idle for so long. Tho soil appeared to be rich and ' there was much excellently-shel-tered land which would bo ideal dairying country once it was opened up-and the blackberry got under. Land round Ittangahua,, for instance, at -£5 an acre, seemed to him a much moro promising proposition than tho .£20," X3O, and ■ even £d 0 per acre which was being paid ,in Taranaki. Tho West Coast might' not be exactly Taranaki, but tho advantage, he thought, would soon lie with, the farmer in this comparatively undeveloped field. At • Inangahua there was a good dairy 'factory already established. Some of the settlers Mr. Hill visited t'old him they found that nothing paid liko dairying, and this despite , the fact that the- supply at' local factory seemed at- present insufficient _to allow of - tho most economical working. With the number of cows, doubled it ought to bo possible for the farmer's to. get between Id', and 2d. more for their butter-fat. From what, he saw some of the farmers had more land than they could use. Tho great "drawback was the blackberry which is everywhere down the West Coast, and apropos it is interesting to recall;.the ; old saying in Nelson' that there was only one blackbsrry bush over Motueka way—it began at the Montere Hills and ended at Farewell Spit, forty odd miles distant. Getting the blackberry down means a good big battle, but with the coming of closer , settlement and small , holdings tho nuisance vrould soon' be a thing of the past.. Mr. Hill spent - some time in the Inanguhua Valley , and then went on (lown through tho country to Hokitika. From the. inquiries he made among the farmers he ; was - convinced that dairying will, before long, . make rapid strides in that part of tli# Dominion. The Coast is, of .course, more or less isolated at the present time, but it should not , be • many ■ years before -it is linked- up with the 1 southern railway system, and 'the margin of difference to land value is . sufficient to compensate for a . good iiiany,' ; drawbacks.