AROUND ALFREDTON.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1022, 11 January 1911, Page 8

AROUND ALFREDTON.

IMPRESSING PBOGKESS. •-(l'rom Our Travelling Correspondent.) • At tho end'of a very pretty road which leads off from .the, Castle Hill Road at Alfrcdton lie? the homestead and station William," Kobbell. It is quite.a surprise to 'find so fine a dwelling as "Ngarata" away back anions the .hills' of this' back country. Mr. Kcbbell has resided for oycr'thirty years in the district. The" grounds, and. gardens are a lovely sight, very gay with tlowers of. every hue. I across the run with the head shepherd.jilo.was'going away to tho Back, and as;l *wanted to get tg Saunders Road, .it 6aved mo .several miles of riding round I ' .ly the road. I got an opportunity of seeing the. country which I .should not have done from tho road. . The hills carry a large proportion of .the' natural grasses; -clover 6eems]to do well also, and where English Brasses have been sown they seem to. do fairly'-well. Tho- carrying capacity seems to be: about a sheep and a half all round. Getting to the' back of tho run 'wo emerged on the Alfredton-Weber main roail, which was in capital order. Liko a good many other back-country roads, this was for sofiio years almost, impassable in winter. Turning off to tho right .'a fine bridgo spans the Tiraiunea River,' and leads to Saunders Road. Hero' there is 6ome lovely sheep country, and Mr... Saunders, a. very old settler, has as nice a station as one could desire. It looks todaya most desirable property, but when Mr.' Saunders took it up it was 'a wild rough' country, and when one looks back and compares the' presont-day state 01 affairs -it is to me at least an over-fresh ■wonder that it has been possible for men to liave produced : such: splendid; farms oi)t of such unpromising condition;'."" Mr. Saunders has a fine . hvo-story dwelling and a large wool shed, and as they, stand away olt the road on rising ground, make a fine. finish to a fine picture. From here the road runs up to Pori, on the Puketoi Range, This is high country, running up to two thousand feet. Tho soil is "a light loam, as is usually the case in limestone country. The main grass is, of course, cocksfoot; clovcrs simply run riot, and all tho stock I : saw - wcro in splendid condition. As one rides along .every now and then a splendid stream ol' the purest water gushes out from •/ the rocks,'icy cold, and dashes'dowii the steep hill on tho other side. It seemed only a hop, step, and jump across to Hinemoa, where I had been seycral weeks .before. Mr. A. Nelson, "Ngamahanga,"-and Mr. Frank' Nelson, "Kuatea," havo farms ad- ; joining on tho southern end of tho range. I was .quito surprised to see tho largo amount of -ploughable land on theso ranges. These gentlemen havo got - tho plough to work, and, of course, with this class of soil;, they can grow; capital, rape and turnips. ' Both have built very_ comfortable dwellings, and as Mr. F. Nelson gets more of tho . celebrated: Puketoi "busters," ho has not only planted good 'shelter belts, but has also had to erect •an iron fence to break tho strength of tho wind. ' All the same, it is a beautiful place to live in, very healthy, and, as Mrs. Archie Nelson said to me: "Yon ; know, wo are not so very far away from i civilisation—wo are only a little over two 'fcours from Pahiatua." ' •