THRIVING CENTRES.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1898, 5 November 1913, Page 16

THRIVING CENTRES.

TOWNS MG® MAIN TBUNH.

RAPID STRIDES AHEAD.

fROM BUSH WHARES TO TOWN HALLS;

'A few years ago it waß a gamble where tho principal centres would bo along tho Main Trunk. It was obvious to everybody that the country, with

the. railroad through it, would in a

very short time produce some flourishing to.wns. But with, stations all I along the line it was difficult indeed at the oeginnin'g to know ..which places wore destined to grow. Mr. Eochfort, the surveyor who picked the best route ; for the railway at the first shot, was . aiot so successful when he came to try 'his hand at. choosing the towns. Ncither_ of the two places ho mentioned jin his report as likely to "bo important centres has 60 far achieved importance. .'"Tur'angarere and the highest point "of itho Waihora (Waiouru) will "both," ■said Mr. Rochfort, "bo places of importance, tho former as the nearest point to Patea, the latter as the procablo connection with Tokaanu- and Taiipo." This was in 1884. In 1908 quit-o as erratic guesses we re still being made. I After five .years of the through s'er',vice ono finds the principal centres at i almost 'equi-distant points along the jine. Halfway between Wellington and i'Auckland, is tho flourishing .township lof Ohakune;' and halfway oetween if and tho older portions of tho line are, ■in the south, Taihapo. and northwards 'Taiimarunui. 'Both, these places were born earlier than Ohakune, and bv contrast ono sees what a wonderful dif-

ference a few years can inako in a iyoung township. Ohakune is still surrounded by a waste of . blackened tim-", iter, tho bones, of the slaughtered;for-. ; est. Around <'Taihape the dead trees ) ! and charred' logs' are '.by. no means suqh / la pronounced 'feature: in tho landscape,- ' land Taumarunui, which happeiied to jhe- in a patch 'of-open-fern/country, has . in conseqiterfce-the-appearance 'ot "beefing a much older, settlement than it is. Of the-three-centre's, Taihape is the !*>nlr onev that? is! fairly, past tho sawj mill stage.'One or.two'mills still reImain thfire,'.'b r ht':'the';bulk';-hai-e s,om'e

: time agdr'?Ttf r ottt,;Btfd .'tite'jtoijrii is now ifairly established'as a farming, centre. ";lt has a -fine around it with some stretches of'good, dairying land innd excollent'lblocks,of, sheep country. railway • litoTO, fo'r-4t here that the heavy 'engines are .put' on ,'the-trains'for -the ! haul up :aroun'd; Mount Ruapehu;- and a Ibig staff is employed at- the "yards' j-handlmg:the'.Vtra£Bc:,'. v . i 1 Ohakuiio' is stiU'dorivifrgMts ,'jprospdr-' lity largely from tho sawmilling industry:; >but much grazing land is being cleared in 'the, Waimarino .nowadays, :.and,the' is also looking forWard to becoming before long a popular tourist resort as a point of departure for the " mountain" trip. Taumarunui, besides tho, va'st blooks of -timber* land surrounding it, has for. its back country extensive sheep and catclo districts. It is tho terminus, of .service,and is.'iui-; Dually visited - by-diuhdfedsv-ofvtouriatiS' on the through trip-from end to end, of New Zealand. It is, bi course, difficult, to say exa'Ctly.'in what direction tirade will go when the railway through tho|; Ohura is built, but everything points to Taumarunui becoming the commercial centre of Northern Taranaki, and Northern Taianaki is undoubtedly a district that will make prodigious strides within the next tea yeafe, and. go some distance towards ,rhe';south :provincWas-a,-dairying district. Tajhape. Taihape was born in 1894, when the Otaihapo IniprovedoFarm - Settlement, situated just the other side of-the railway from the business part of the town, was throwii'-open-for-iselection on September 12'bf.that year. "Sections were taken up ;lf} y "a;;small" "Christchurch people, and tfie first-' -resideiits are stated to have been Messrs. W. J. H. M'Cormick, T. J. Shute, John Cryer, and .G. Buren. ; -With the .exception of . -Mr. Isuren,iwho'left the'' district,-all- are ' stiirreSidiug "and hone appears to have regretted throwing in his fortunes with the new centre in tho ,husb. Mr. M'Cormick states that wfyen iho arrived he found a-Mr!' Healy coniduoting an accommodation house, in a '/tent where the coach -from Ohingaiti to ffokaanu stopped for dinner. Mr. Healy does not appear, however, to have been a permanent resident. Six months pater, ; in March, 1895, the sections in jithe township weie sold, and the pick tof them fetched about £50. The same (sections now, eighteen years after, (would be worth about £1000. At tho beginning of 1897, the writer passed through the new settlement, and round an .accommodation house and

Btora and three or four whares on a pmall clearing. It was the end of everything, for the telegraph., line had been left miles back at Ohakune, and northwards there was only a wayside accomjmodation house at. the junction of the

JMoawhango Road, another whare at a plaoe then known as Mitchell's, and then some ten miles further on Mr. [Peters's accommodation houso at Waiouru, where Peters's mail coaches from Ohingaiti made their halt for the night, an route to Tokaanu. . f Taihape had some wild and riotous days as' 1 a pioneering town, and there aro stories extant of a horrified parson iirriving one fine Sunday to find his flock holding a race meeting on the main street and speculating freely on the favourites. But times change rapIdly when, a railway is planted down in the oontre ;of'a fertile tract .'of' country kind the Taihape of ten years ago is riot Ithe Taihape of to-day. In its place the Wsitor-finds, a 'thriving borough ; witH jeleotrio light," a:high-pressure,water, supply, a f fine:,municipal building . with "a library and. reading-room, and a theatre peating a thousand people, one of the [Most beautiful domains in New Zealand, a drainage system, and a public pswlmming bath. The town also boasts

[h. post office with a clock tower and jchimes, a number of substantial churches

[and public buildings, and finally it may J!Lo added that it supports two picture bellows nightly, besides such other entor[jtainments as come along and occupy the [(municipal theatre.

, Since the borough was formed in 1906 the population has risen from 1200 to 1800, an increase of 60 per cent, in eeven years, and the number of buildings has moro than doubled, springing from 200 to 410. The gross capital; Value of the borough during the earns Jwriod has risen from £74.000 to >2202,000. The borough debt at the present time amounts to £47,638, which Cum.includea an amount of £5000 spent on reads by the County Council in the days beforo there was a borough. A !suni of £7500 _ has ' been Bpent on a Jiydro-olectno light and power service. For this two 100 horse-power turbines 'wero erected at a suitable point on tho Hautapu Rivor, running past the town, and wore coupled to 50 kilowatt generators. Tho wator Bupply is also obtained from the Hautapu and iB lifted by an electrically-driven pump to a height; of. 412 foot to a storage reservoir with a capacity of 1,350,000 gallons. The pressure in tho centre of the town : is about 1601b. This service absorbed some £15,000 of the loan money. 'Hie drainage system cost £7500, the baths £1000, tne municipal buildings and Town Hall £6600, the fire brigade dtotion £500, and'the''balance' of the loans wciit in street improvement, a costly work, wlion good metal has to be railed 23 miles and cannot.be laid down at under 9s. per yard on tho road. In order, to meet the interest on the cost of tli© Town Hall the borough cut a slice

off an unnecessarily largo plot of land left in the centre of the town for a reserve, o,nd let if in seven,sections on renewable lease. Tho rent, amounting to £243 per annun), was ear-marked for the interest on the ' Town Hall, and covers two-thirds of the amount, falling (Tue.cacli year. In this way Taihapo has sccured a great public convenience at a very small cost, and when tho leases of the sections fall in, in G6 years' time, it will liavo another valuable asset as there is to be no payment for improvements. ■

Practically the whole of the borough schemes described abovo have been inaugurated within tho last two years. Tho present and second Mayor of Taihapo is Mr. W. M'Lennan, and his prodecessor was Mr. Anthony Nathan. Mr. George Sutherland has been Town Clerk sinco tho establishment of the borough.

'l'aihape is fortunate in possessing a remarkably picturesque domain just on tho outskirts of the town. On both sides of the bend in tho narrow gorge of Hautapu two big blocks of native bush have been reserved by the Government. That on the town side is vested in a Domain Board, and is laid out with ptths running through it, and taking one to the icdge of bluffs from which the river can be seen swirling past a hundred feet below, bordered' by the

same dense bash that not so many years ago covered tho whole of the surrounding country.. The bush on 'the-fur-side of; .the; fiver: is a scenic is not yet-opened l up with paths. The two blocks' - comprise an area of slightly o;er three hundred acres. On tho flat at' the top of the gorge, and adjoining the domain is the borough recreation pound of twelve acres. This ground is also used for the. annual show of the Rangitikei Agricultural and Pastoral Association, which is now in its third year.

„ OHAKUNE. Ohakiiiie has tho distinction of being the youngest borough on tho Main Trunk ■ line. _ It had its birth as a municipality just two years ago, and it has proved a remarkably flourishing infant. The local residents ' state that though there is no boom in the borough, and the visitor can espy a fow erupty : sl;ops. erected by thoSo. overoptimistic individual who expccted a tjwn to, arise, in a night, still business is solid, Valid the place is settling down to a steady jog-trot on the high road of 'piogress. Tho borough statistics make cheerful reading for the townspeople. At the end of March last there wore 300 dwellings ; in the borough, "and the capital value amounted to £80,000, £35,000 of this amount representing tho unimproved value, and £45,000 the value of' . the. improvements. Since

these figures were . compiled, permits have been granted for the erection of 31 new buildings, of a total value of £0841: The record for the previous J tar, 82 buildings, valued at £5342, had been considered very 1 ' satisfactory at the time, but the current year has already eclipsed it with less than seven months' Tun at the time' of writing. These figures, moreover, do not indicate the total amount of building in the borough, as the by-laws provide that permits need not be obtained for the erection of' outhouses or additions. A good many bachelor shacks aro run up on sections, and classed as outhouseß, ■£nd a little later, when matrimony and a cottage is the order of the day, the bouse goes on the front of the lean-to, and counts as an "addition."

Like most other municipalities, Ohakune has its loans and loan scnemes. The old town board in the pre-borough days borrowed £2500 for roads and footpaths. The borough has already raised £15,000, of which amount £10,000 will go on roads and £8900 on an electric lighting and power plant, now in course of erection. The power for tho plant is to be obtained from the Mangftwhero River, and a 250 horse-power turbine is being installed. The council has also obtained authority from the ratepayers to borrow £5000 for a water-supply service, and £4000 for drainage.

There are at present •-about twenty eawmills working within a ten-milo radius of Ohakune, and tho industry is the main support'of the town. There is a large,area of dairying and good sheep land ( waiting to be developed westward from the town, and Ohakune is as little likely to fall on evil days whon the sawmills cut out as did Daunevirke when timber some years back ceased to be an item of consequence in its economy.

As tho half-way point from Wellington to Auckland, Ohaknno is already a railway centre, and will becomo increasingly important as tho years go by, and the traffic from all the undeveloped back country comes pouring in. It is the headqtiaTters of a district railways engineer, and it has lately been given a traffic manager. The Railway Department is putting in a sawmill near tho township for the purpose of cutting up a block of rimu for new buildings. Work has alroady begun on tho mill, "and an early start will bo made on tho cutting in ordor to relieve tho pressure on the Department's present mill at Kakahi, south of Taumarunui. / Tho piece of bush to bo cut lies on the east of the railway, and 'borders on tho Tongariro National Park. This park itself, in yearß to como, will bo a big assot to the borough, as Ohakuno is

the moat convenient spot for visitors by rail to ascend Ruapehu from.

The town at present is divided into two portions. At tho railway station is Ohakune East, witli throe or four boardinghousos catering for the railway stop-over traffic, and a few stores. A milo or a milo and a half away, lies Ohakune proper, with its two rows of shop fronts, its newspaper office, post office, and telephone exchange, livery stables, lawyers' offices, public halls, churches, band rotunda, and tho other etceteras of Civilisation. Tho intervening gap between tho two sections of the town is a wilderness of dead timber that is, however, rapidly being thinned out into good grass land. Already cottages aro scattered along both sides of the street from tlio oid town to the station. As evidence of the progress of tho place it may bo mentioned that there are at present over 70 subscribers to tho local telephone exchange.

The Mayor of Ohakune is Mr. T. H. Kiely, who has held office since the inception of tho I borough. Mr. Kicly arrived in Ohakuno six and a half year's ago, and has seen tho place hewn out of the solid bush. TAUMARUNUI, In the memory of many visitors Tau-

marunui remains a ghost of a town seen in the pale and not too oheerful light of early morning, in a hurried rush for the river steamer. When the sun rises it reveals tho town as one of the most attractively-situated along tho line. Away in tho distance, against tho baso of the hills, flows the Wauganui llivcr, a long streak of silver meandering down on its 130 mile journey to tho sea. Erom the valloy along which the trains/ disappear northwards the Ongaruliuc River comes down to meet the main stream, a milo or so below the town, and it is on the flat between these two rivers that Taumarunui has been built. It stands in tho midst of a wide valley between the fern and bush-clad lulls," and with the aid of a beautifying society and judicious tree-planting could bo made, and doubtless will bo mado, one of tho most delightful tewns in tho Dominion. Sawmilling is likely during the next few years to remain tho predominant industry, for it is in the districts surrounding Taumarunui that the most heavily-timbered. portions of the W.-ii-marino forest stand. Tho river traffic on the.Upper Wangnnui must always havo its headquarters at Taumarunui, and the towii will before long probably be the point of departure for the' Projected tourist-route to tho Hot Lakes district, via Tokaann, which will con-

centrate on it a still greater volume of tourist traffic.

The real prosperity of tho placo will, however, in years to. come, bo based

mainly on the development of the country along the Ohura railway. The Ohura railway promises to become a reality within the next few years, and although the junction with the main line is not at the town, but eight miles northwards, Taumainmui is the nearest stopping-place for the express, and it is probable that the trains for Taranaki via Ohura will start there. East of the Main Trunk there are great blocks of Native lands absolutely untouched so far as settlement is concerned. The bulk of the country will, according to competent .authorities, carry easily a sheep and a half to the acre. On the south side of the Wanganui there is much dairying land, and more sheep country, all in an almost undeveloped st^te.

The River. Trust has opened up a big block in this direction lately. Taumarunui has only to get a small share of the trade of the districts surrounding it to become a town of consequence, and it is only the habitually pessimistic who have doubts as to its future. The head waters of the Wanganui River had attractions for tho Maori at a very early date, and one of the biggest inland villages in the interior west of Taupo' was situated at Taulnarunui, while smaller kaiangas wero. to be found dotted about the neighbouring country. It was to Taumarunui that the calls for aid camo when the Maoris of Taranaki wero engaged in the big war, and most of tho old Maori tracks between north and south led to tho big villago on tho Wanganui. The Maori of yesterday has left the townspeople of to-day with a heavy legacy, for Taumarunui 1 is _ still in theory a Maori kaiauga, nnd the whole town is occupied on Mativo leases. No farmor on leasehold land could havo sighed for the freehold more deeply than tho ratepayers of Taumarunui. Today tho only piece of freehold in the whole of the borough is a block of 34 acrcs, acquired recently by tho council under tho I uolic Works Act, for a municipal saleyard. A block of municipal buildings is also to bo erected on tho land, and tlio borough septic tank will bo on it. As the total area is greater than will bo required for present purposes, it has been decided to cut it up into 46 quarter-acre sections, to bo ofForedr on renowablo leaso. Thus tho borough will acquire a valuablo endowment and forty-six householders will escape tho Maori landlord.

Taumarunui as a European settlement bad its birth when tho Main Trunk lino reached it from tho north in 190-1. The oldest resident, Mr. A. Boil, however, can dato his first arrival back to long years bofore this, for ho Bottled iu the locality eomo thirty-five years ago, and

was for a long time tlio only white man in the district. After tho coming of tlio railway tho township grow rapidly, but from 1906 until 1910 its affairs" woro governed by a Native Town Council. In that year tho borough was created, and it promptly put an extensive programmo of works iu hand. Authority w«9 obtained to raiso a loan of £'21,800 for water, sewerage,' and street formation and metalling. Thoey works ore now practically eompfoted. The wator lias been brought by gravitation from the Kakalii Stream some eight miles out. of tho .town. An excellent fall has been obtained, and there is a pressure of 135]b to. t'ho square il.ch oil tho flat. Tho scheme 'has cost tsomo £13,000. The drainage, on which £3300 is being spent, is on tho septic tank system end tlio work is at present only being extended to tho more closely populated part of the borough. An additional loan of £10,500 has since been authorised. Of this £4500 is to go in t'ho installation of a petrol gas-lighting plant £1000 on the municipal saleyards, £520 on a stone-cruslur, £325 oil the recreation ground and improvements, £5-50 on- a municipal and fire brigade building, and £3000 on drainage collections. The capital value of tho borough now amounts to about £130,000, and is •steadily increasing. The value of the now buildings erected in. 1911-12 was £11,164, and for the year ending in March 31 last, was £16,163. Tho increase in the value of land in tie borough may be gathered from tie fact that leases of sections at the Matapuna end of the town, which four or live years ago would have fetched 20s. to 30s. per acre per annum, have run up to £10 and £14 per acre per annum. Taumarunui has a cottage hospital, but tliis is altogether inadequate for the needs of tlio district, and the number of patients is frequently far in excess-, of tho accommodation, An agitation is now on foot for the creation of a separate hospital district, with the town as its centre. Like several of the neighbouring counties. Taumarunui has its Native rate problem, but the amount of tho arrears is not so-heavy as in the countics, amounting to a matter of £300.

The Mayor of Taumariinui and the originator of a good ma.ny of the borough schemes is Mr. W. H. Walkrow, who is also well known as the manager of the Taringnmntu Totara Timber Company, and the designer of its remarkably well laid out. plant. Mr. J. E. Slattery is the town clerk.