THE HAURAKI PLAINS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1687, 1 March 1913, Page 12

THE HAURAKI PLAINS.

A SUCCESSFUL SETTLEMENT.

Glowing accounts of the progress that is .being made by settlers in the Hauraki Plains lands, which are being drained under a Government scheme, and opened for selection, are given by. Mr. ,T. W. Rhodes, member for'Thames,-who paid a flying visit to Wellington yesterday. •. "It is just three years'ago in May since the first ballot," remarked Mr. Rhodes, "and barely two and a half -years since the first settler took, up his holding. Last year tho aggregate butter cheque of .the settlers' was .£11)0, This season it will,bo ,£BOO, and next season, I believe, it will be double that amount. The production is, being increased every day.> . The • settlers also .'are tiirning out some very,fiUo v fat cattle. Practically the whole of the! settlers are rapidly improving their holdingsond doing well. A few of tho,properties have changed hands at a premium of i! 10 an aero. Another block is to be opened up next month, which contains some'.of the best land in the Whole of the drainage area, and,the sections are in very keen demand. The Government are doing the right thing. They have out the land up into small sections. The area about to be opened stands higher than most of tho land on the plains, and a good many of the new sections carry a certain amount of grass already." Mr. Rhodes is of opinion that 'within tho hext five years the Hauraki Plains will .be an, important dairying district, and that inside ten years the plains will bd One'of the foremost dairying districts in .New Zealand.

In general, Mr. Rhodes states, the soil on tho plains is a rich deep loam. Even tho sections described as peaty, on which settlers are at present experiencing a certain amount or trouble, are good land. They an - accumulation of vegetable matter which will form rich soil when beaten down and worked in by stock. The possibilities of the Hauraki "Plains, Mr. Rhodes Continued, may bo estimated from the quality of tho lands which lie at tho back of the plains. ■ The Estimates last year bore a vote' of £3500 for roading the plains, but ,so far only one contract has been let. Metal has to bo brought from a distance, and contractors have been chary of undertaking the work of road formation. The Lands Department, Mr. Rhodes stated, is considering whether it should call for further tenders or itself undertake the work of procuring tho laying of .the metal.

At present tho settlers use roads composed of spoil thrown out from tho drains. Theso are excellent fine-weather roads, but in winter become very boggy, and last -winter some of the settlers had to carry supplies on their backs through the paddocks. Steam launohes on. the river aro employed in conveying cream to tho factory. '. The drainage scheme as a whole, Mr. Rhodes declared, is undoubtedly an unqualified success, and will confer a great benefit upon tho district and upon the Dominion in providing extensive areas of land tliat can bo cut up into small sections, taken- over, by comparatively poor men, and rapidly improved. As to tlio general progress of settlement' in and ...about his district, Mr. Rhodes stated that a great deal of land in _ the neighbourhood of' Coromandel is being rapidly cleared of bush and converted into oapital sheep country. The district as a whole, he remarked, is coming to dopend less and less on mining. The whole country from Thames right down to Capo Colville, in his opinion, is.eminently adapted for sheep farming. In fact, - Mr. Rhodes states that there is no finr>r sheep country in the whole of New Zealand.