PROSPERING TAIHAPE

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 830, 31 May 1910, Page 8

PROSPERING TAIHAPE

A DISTRICT THAT-HAS MADE; GOOD.' "'■'•.■ ~~- • ' ' "-I-" '•"'-■ ■': "Taihape? Yes, Taihape; what do you know about.it?" .■• •" .", :■-. ■ "Taihape is oho of the coldest and wet-, test places, in the .North Island, very' hilly, poor land, can't see how it call ever be much of a place," That is what was said when the. township was offered for sale. A neighbour who was farming near me (writes our travelling correspondent) told me ho was going over '.when. the. town sections .were epld, as he thought there might be a good thing'in-it.-■ Eo went, and-bonght'iv eection right in the middle of. the town for about £50. A very short .time afterwards he thought, "What a fool I have been," and the next thing lie did was to sell his section again for practically what ho paid, thinking he was very lucky to be able to do so. He told me it was a God-forsaken country, and stock would starve in the winter, as when the' bush iras down there would be no grass. That man was a false prophet. Look at Taihape and its 'surrounding districts to-day! There is as nice a little township as one can desire, its shops and stores -would do credit to many a town of much larger growth. Taihape is the market town for. a large area of country; •its stock sales each year become more im■portant; and as the more remote back country and the idle Maori Jands become settled ,by industrious pakeha farmers these- saleyards will soon bo found inadequate for the business! Even when I. was there a short time ago the auctioneers had considerable difficulty in Warding the stock. No doubt as the lands further up the Main Trunk lino become settled and stocked the Toibapo salevards will prove a centre to which both buyers and sellers will come in increasing numbers. x

Then as for the country round Taihape being unsuitable for stock, , my observations shoved the opposite. I told several of'.my farmer lricnds that people "outside," among which I must class myself, had no idea of tho country round Taihape. I should say that very little indeed will not carry two sheep to the acre, and a good deal carries '2i to '3. This seems fall talk to "outside" ears, but when one has actual figures given toy the men who are farming on this scale it cannot be gainsaid. Of courso a great deal of the country is new yet, and the grass is not old enough for fattening on, the scale it will do later on. There is also a largo area of open land which v/ill eventually be brought under the plough, and at no distant date there Bill be many thousands of fat, lambs Bent away where there are now hundreds. From the samples of oats grown in the district' there should be a considerable quantity of chaff raised. At present the land is too forcing, and inclined to too much straw. This will be remedied when the land has toned down a bit. Eoot crops do well in the district.

For a considerable time nowthoKairanga County Council has been trying to settle a complaint from settlers at Lintou, that a certain stream was being contaminated by the washings from the dairy .factory. Deputations have waited on the council, and meetings of settlers have been held over the matter. After vainly endeavouring to get the settle™ and the dairy company to settle the question among themselves, the council asked tho Health Department to report on . the trouble. Tins report is n:-.» iu hand, and it shows that very little of the washings from the factory get into tho t-reck, and not sufficient in itself to make the water unlit for cattle, but the fact has been brought to light that certain s.-.ttlors on {ho stream above tlie factory drain their piiisties and cowyards into it. Tho council Iris now ordered, a copy <;f the report to 1)0 'sent to alMhc persons interested.

At a means of eradicating Californian thistle, Mr. H. W. Horton, of Blenheim, sugnosts that lucerne should lie planted in thistle-infested land. T'io cutting of the lucerne at regular intervals, would. Mr. Horton says, dettroy the thistle.