PIONEERS OF SETTLEMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1006, 22 December 1910, Page 10

PIONEERS OF SETTLEMENT.

■ THE ROW THEY HOIS. riling of the settlement on the ;heavily-timbered land in the Aotea.and: Stirling districts, out from . Ekctahuna,. our* travelling correspondent says:—

. From what I could see while looking over. Borac farms, I think it safo to say that at least half is not available. The surface'is taken up by logs and stumps, co that'a farmer having a section 0f.200 acres, even, if it was all sown, would, not have .more than 100 acres "of grass. .And'it. seems, to-me that here is one of; the -very. greatest. difficulties. with which .tho man who takes up a bush farm has' to cope. Supposing ho has a leasehold section upou which ho is paying two shillings an acrb rent, it really costs lnm four shillings, as half his laud .: ia-not .available/ and it is only, by the expenditure' of hard cash and hard . t6il that in the-course of time he is able to make ends meet. , Therb are hundreds of men on bush sections who have a hard ;and bitter struggle to live. ' It is hard on their -.wives too.'' The children don't seem to mind; they call be happy anywhere. Many a man has told- me he would, be far 1 better off working at whatever -trade lie'may havo previously worked. But "there, it is - the, brave heart and the . strong arm, - and. a cheerful and contented wife to welcome him home at the' end of the day that form the key to the. problem. . '..These, hardly pioneers hare better .times ahead to ;which .they are constantly looking'.". . "When I get fifty more acres down," or "when I get more ' dividing fences," or-whatever, they havo. mads the goal—it is to that they are ahvavs looking. Very' few of those whom I havo mot have lost, heart. They ghtmble. and growl about "the lack of roads. .--'Arid goodness only'knows how mnch_ reason they, have for their grumbles ! But'as to giving" lip the .struggle—no, they,have got a section, and.'tliey mean,to stick to it. .- Those are thfe men who .are the pioneers'of settlement,; men of little or no means when : they - start, their capital ■being chiefly their energy. They find as years.go on that- 200 acres of heavy bush land (and really only 100 acres -are 1 feeding stock). are.- not sufficient on wliiph to mako a comfortable, living.. The, result is that they .sell out, making a- rise .through' the improvements they havo done, and in: most cases they take up a larger section somewhere else.