RICH LANDS BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 33, 8 February 1935, Page 25 (Supplement)

RICH LANDS BEYOND THE MOUNTAINS

MOUNTAIN and ocean have, combined to make the Wairarapa, the Manawatu, and the Wellington districts interdependent. , , The part played by the mountain range was to divide the. Wairarapa (east) from the Mariawatu (west), and then (atits south end) to fork, so that one branch of the fork (the'Rimutaka mountains, part of which is sometimes called Orongorongos) erected a barrier between the.Wellington district and the Wairarapa, and the other branch of the fork erected a barrier between the Wellington district and the Manawatu. In other tvords, this mountain fork forms an enclave in.which lie the Hutt River basin and the. Wellington Harbour. Wellington Harbour being the only natural port of the whole area, it was evident from the very beginning that to cross or to pierce the hill barrier between Wellington and Wairarapa, and the other one between Wellington and Manawatu, would be a leading problem of transport economics. The extent to which, after ninety odd years of effort, settlement has triumphed over mountain may be gauged to some extent by glancing, at the following highest points on the rail- ; ways and roads connecting the port and city of Wellington with the Wairarapa hinterland and the Manawatu hinterland: North Island Main Trunk railway, WellingtonPalmerston North section, elevation at Khandallah tunnel 520 feet, and at Pukerua Bay , 267 "feet. , . Deviation (incomplete) of North Island Main Trunk railway, Wellington-Palmerston North section, highest elevation between Wellington and Tawa Flat 195 feet. Main highway via West Coast, Wellington to Palxnerston North, elevation at Johnsonville 480 feeyand at Paekakariki Hill 780 feet Main highway via Akatarawa, Wellington to Palmerstdn North, elevation at Akatarawa Saddle 1480 feet. Main highway via Hutt Valley and Rimutaka, Wellington to Masterton, elevation at Rimutaka. Saddle 1820 feet. Wellington-Masterton-Woodville railway, Wel-lingtoh-Mastertbn section, elevation at Summit, 1144 feet.' /'/'■ NATURE PROVIDES A GAP. '■ ■ From the very beginnings of settlement in Wellington in 1840 the difficulty of the natural barrier between the Wellington city-port and its two hinterlands was obvious; but it also soon came to be recognised that Providence had breached the backbone range where the Manawatu River flows through it. This; gap, the only one in the Tararua-Ruahirie-Huiarau ranges that affords- a low''level passage, enabled a direct line of communication to be established between the Wairarapa and ;the Manawatu— that is,:between east and west. Thus the railways, from Wellington through the Wairarapa and from Wellington through; the Manawatu were able to be linked in the north, via the Manawatu Gorge, and before the end of the eighties the iron road round this, circuit, completely enclosing the Tararua section of the backbone range, was complete. THE MAIN TRUNK OUTLET^. Important as the gorge, is to traffic, it does not carry'the Main Trunk railway of the North Island..^ While the Government was railwaying the Wairarapa and east coast, on the west coast a private company of' enterprising Wellington men was building to Longburn (near Palmerston North) a,railway that was destined to be taken over later by the State and to form a vital part of .the North Island Main Trunk. But this railway first of all "made the Manawatu." Although the Government locomotives were whistling 'on the Wairarapa side of the Rimutaka the Wellington Manawatu Com-pany's-locds. were heard on the Manawatu "plains, the latter event proved the more stimulating; "for in the eighties the population total of Manawatu, the younger district, passed that of. Wairarapa, the older district. Wairarapa had had its real beginnings in 1844 when, according to "Bidwill of Pihautea,"

Cffi /ELLINGTON'S prestige is in part due to its status as the capital city of \Jc/ the Dominion. Its commercial standing, however, has to be founded upon something more material than political headquarters, and it is chiefly due to the fact that the city stands at the southern apex of a triangle containing highly productive lands and flourishing inland communities. Into these areas Wellington reaches out by two main channels of communication, along each of which run road and railway. The potential wealth of this hinterland, dropped beside and between mountain ranges, was evident from the first; its development has been in a great measure dependent upon the conquering of, the difficulties which the ranges imposed. The mountains are still there, but the traffic ways go cheerfully over, round, or through them, and are now not only arteries of trade but part of the people's playground.

C. R. Bidwill, Swainson, Weld, and Vavasour drove Bidwill's and Clifford's sheep from Him Valley to Lake Wairarapa and the', plains beyond, going by the coast (Mukamuka) route, and not by the Rimutaka (which was not then tracked, and was not dray-roaded till more than a decade later). Thus the first sheep entered the Wairarapa,. and farming began there at a time when.lie future of.the Manawatu plains was hardly glimpsed. .In those days, before the coast-raising earthquakes (1848 and 1855), to get round, the sea-swept Mukamuka rocks with sheep was extremely difficult. But Wairarapa sheep shaped so well that the Canterbury colonists might have gone there had the Maori owners- been willing to sell enough land. Negotiations with the b nin

went ttf Canterbury, which afterwards became a great sheep-producing country.

GROWTH OF SETTLEMENT.

Statistics are not always illuminating, but a special table prepared by. the Government Statistician tells, more succinctly than anything else can tell, the tale of the growth of settlement in Wairarapa, and in Manawatu, also in the Wellington provincial district.

The Government Statistician's figures are worked out on a county basis, and begin in 1861 as for Wairarapa and the Wellington provincial district, but as for Manawatu begin in 1871, because the county basis in the ManawatuRangitikei area in 1861 does not provide the required information. But as 1861 preceded the founding of Palmerston North (which dates 1869-70), it may be concluded that there was little censal information to return for Manawatu in 1861, and for all. practical purposes 1871 may be regarded, as the beginning. But in 1861 Wellington was about twenty years old and Wairarapa about sixteen years old. In that year the population of the Wellington provincial district (excluding Maoris) was 12,566, of whom 1693 were in Wairarapa. Ten years later, 1871, Manawatu, with 1002 people, had less than a third of the population of Wairarapa, 3570. But a decade later, in 1881, Manawatu's population had risen to 8738, Wairarapa's to 10,553. So rapid was the development in the eighties that by 1891 Manawatu led with-19,541, Wairarapa having 15,490. Much the same gap was maintained in 1901 (Manawatu 28,855, Wairarapa 24,591), but by 1911 Manawatu, riding on the.back of'the dairy cow, was away ahead (39,965, 28,967), and the population figures for 1921 (47,820, 32,236), for 1931 (55,200, 33,730), . and for 1934 (57,000, 34,310)' tell the same story. When you look at the Government Statistician's, return of dairy cows, sheep,:and farm ani-

mals, figures are again eloquent. Details for dairy cows are not available before.lß9l,.but in that year the older district and the younger district were roughly equal in both dairy cows and horses. In 1891 Wairarapa had a few less horses than Manawatu (8102, 8375) and a few more dairy, cows (8786, 8276). Since then the figures of the horse (both in its rise and in its decline in the benzine era) have remained to a surprising degree equal in both districts; but the dairy cow figures by 1901 had jumped to 35,649 in Manawatu and to 25,006 in Wairarapa, while in 1934 Manawatu had 120,751 dairy cows, and Wairarapa 71,837.

What do these figures spell? They spell rainfall and other factors making for the predominance of dairying. And through dairying they spell high land values. You may deduce from the_ Government. Statistician's

figures much of the climatic character and economic policy of the Manawatu. Population and intensive dairying have ! gone together. And if you look in the Government Statistician's figures for the corollary .—relative importance of the sheep in the Wairarapa—you will .find that too.. It.has been shown above that Wairarapa received its first sheep in 1844. In the 1861 return Manawatu does; not' figure, but in 1871, of the "714,094. sheep in the Wellington provincial districj:, 51,604, were in Manawatui and' '380,462 in Wairarapai Today Waira-. rapa has 2,105,815 sheep, Manawatu . 1,084,048. The • decade for the intervening' period, with Wairarapa,: always in the lead, are: 1881, 772,398, ■137,226; 1891, 1,105^239, 667,110; , 1901,. 1,842,809, 1,063,538; 1911, :2 i 166,249, 1,043,437; 1921, 1,877,631,: 843,006; 1931; 2;233,960;. ; 1;158,233.> ; ' WELLINGTONS ■MAGNETIC PORT^ v ' ; To lip, the cow produce^ of theY well-watered dairy- lands of Manawatu;; and the sheep.Vproduce of .the/drieir butji wonderfully healthy sheep .pastures v of* s Wairarapa, both come over mountain- "■ conquering railways and roads to find- : shipment at Wellington Harbour to the '■■. 1 other/side {of the. world. The'port of^ Wellington' is a magnet- because ; the. "Manawatu and Wairarapa coasts themselves offer: no-port of importance. Wellington and these two hinterlands, a> '-i though separated, by Nature, are yet naturally complementary, and port and transport policy has made them a true co-operative unit. THE CHIEF COUNTRY TOWNS. While it might be s,aid, in a large sense, that Manawatu is a dairy farm and Wairarapa a sheep farm, yet the fact remains that in parts of the Wairarapa dairying is very successful, and southern Wairarapa has particularly distinguished itself in cheese-making. The Wairarapa people were, indeed, pioneers in dairying, and Manawatu learned from them.

: Manawatu's chief town is Palmerston North, Wairar'apa's is Masterton. The railway1 from Wellington entered Mas-

terton in 1880, the first passenger train from, Wellington ./ entered Palmerston ■' North in 1886. Both had reached . borough status in the same-year, 1887, Masterton being then about 23 years old and Palmerston North about seven. In .1909 Palmerston North had 11,650 people, Masiertpn 5500. At April 1, 1934, Palmerston North had 23,850, Masterton 8830, Feilding.4s2o. ;

Palmerston North was, by virtue of its population having exceeded 20,000, elevated to the status of a city in August, 1930. In its business atmosphere, it reflects very clearly the occupation of its country dwellers: it is easily recognisable, as the chief farmers' town in the southern portion..of the North Island. Its big and well-organised shows, held twice a year, are events of national importance.

Wheels and a Social Revolution

NOT the last seventy, but the last/thirty, : years have produced a change which has. ' been equivalent to a social revolution of an intense and vital kind. It is the rise pf swift and easy.road transport, embodied principally : in the motors-car. * ■ ■

Thirty years ago, a family, excursion of 20 miles or more into the country—other than by. . .train—usually involved a whole day and a fine - display of staff work. There had to be negotiations between the prospective travellers and their distant hosts; commissariat had to be assured; there were anxious and exciting interviews with the .providers of hired transport, housed in an aromatic and romantic livery■■'stable; anxious speculation about the weather; :-- and, finally, the great outing, often with a horse whose temperament was not quite "in" accord . with that of the rather. amateurish driver. , In .any case, it was a day. But.if.it was a 'day : &£i,.v. little anxieties and ;discomforts,-it was.also Tl a day to be remembered for its "thrills, * a'?<lay\ 7 . whose highlights invited repetition. ' When pioneers travel, they take the easiest, ~. -.route. They, have not the time, and the.manpower to survey and construct, highways by< a short route, excavating great tonnages of rock and building viaducts across valleys: their roads . go over and round rather than through and., across. And a road once made is a road for . a long time. In the leisurely days of the past,,.. when people travelled either because business compelled them or the urge to excursion became -. irresistible, winding, narrow, roads were accepted as part of the order of things—not perhaps what one■" would like, but unavoidable. There was even a sort of left-handed affection. • for "zig-zags," "devil's elbows," and pother - adventurous permanent incidents of the road. ...

The arrival of rubber tires,- first widely used on bicycles, heralded the advent of easy travel for the multitude. The younger generation seized upon the bicycle as the."key to all outdoors," and the miles seemed to fly. Distance had begun to dwindle. Eager youths, no longer restricted in range, courted with facility chosen maidens whom, a few years earlier, they might never have seen. Strong young men began to take-part in cycling marathons, racing a hundred miles to make a holiday for pedestrians. But it was tlie motor-car that really did take the people off their feet. About 1900, autojnobiles had begun to familiarise themselves, rattling through the streets, and creating terrible consternation among horses- and cattle in the fields alongside country roads. An; occasional motor-bus, carrying a horn which was not really necessary for warning purposes, thundered its way between official stops and engine troubles. And people began to talk about roads as if they were, after all, not what they should be. Everybody knows what has. happened since. There is now a motor-vehicle of some sortjfqr every half-dozen people in New Zealand. ■"' The motor-car, directly and indirectly, supports .a huge industrial and business group. About a million a year is spent on roads, for construction and maintenance. The country is laced with finely-surfaced roads, which make .travel a real pleasure. Dusty streets in the towns are' scarcely to be found. Imported motor-vehicles and accessories have cost as much as £5,400,000 in a single year. Petrol imports have exceeded £2,000,000* in a year. On the principle of making the user pay, motorists have been directly taxed, through petrol and tires, and otherwise, for the construction and maintenance of roads, to the extent of about a million a year. .-■:■■'

The result of this extraordinary "motorismg** of the community is that, for,a very large.pro- '• portion of the population, transport by road over.long distances is no longer a troublesome and fare adventure, but, carried out in comfort, ■ it is,swift and easy, and is rapidly passing out ' of the/category of luxury into that of the necessaries oflife. It Jias profoundly changed the ; social life of the people, and has. had far-reach-ing effeqts upon health and mental attitudey;: especially _ among, the 'aged. .It is one:-of the:: chief factors, if not .the chief, in the abolition.; of the custom of relegating old people to a/rock^ ing chair in the corner. Grandmothers ■' iicr longer wear caps ; aiid' sit with folded; hinds: ! Thanks to the motor-car, tliey : can be but.and about, in touch with the colour ariel rhpveriifent ; of .the intensely, active world of 'today; their • minds' are. encouraged not to doze but to, keep;,. step, as far as they. can, t with the l)fe v of • the : ' community; and,to" an. extent that Would;.M\^e; astounded the Victorians and the Edwardia% they are prolonging their vigour; into yeirs wheir by the standards of their own youthful :'days ; they would have had,- at best,- to sit; in -tn6 sui»,: and'think of what might liave beeaj '