The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, SEPT. 20, 1883. The Wanganui Harbor Board Block.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 46, 20 September 1883, Page 2

The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, SEPT. 20, 1883. The Wanganui Harbor Board Block.

«> The settlers on the Manchester, Kiwitea, ami Wanganui Harbor Board Blocks are all equally interested in the announcement that the hitter Board has decided to fell, stump, «n<i clear about 482 chains (say six miles) of road. The season selected sbow9 thac the Board is fully alive to the necessity which exists for work of this kind being 1 done with rapidity, and without interruption trom bud weather. The summer is now at hand and contractors will be able to work and get up tbeir supplies at, a comparatively small cost — a Great consideration in clearing bush roads. Ihe main benefit however, will be the direct encouragement given to new settlers to toke up hind in this favored locality. Every member added to the community in a newly opened country is an addition to the working power that must be experienced to be thoroughly understood. The settlers who are already on the block will welcome the formation of roads that will euab'e them to have easy communication not only wich their neighbors, but with the various townships on the railway line. A considerable addition is also made to the value of the Jand to which the new roads give access. The money expended by the Harbor Board will be returned ten told. Persons desir ous of taking up bush land to clear with a view of farming, are always, in a measure, deterred i>y the difficulties to be overcome in ford no" an entry to examine into the natutf of the forest und the general lay of the country. Ibis difficulty is removed by the felling and clearing of bush tracks, by which intending settlers can make a thorough examination of what they are desirous of purchasing. The knowledge that he can drive up his stock and put them on the land immediately on completing his purchase is a great inducement, and the fact that supplies for his family and servants can be cheaply carried to his boundary gladdens his heart in a way easily tc be understood by those who have passed a first winter on a bush farm with no road 10 it, and only a miserable track through the damp forest, knee deep in ojud, by which communication with the outer world is kept up at irregular intervals, and provisions brought in at a heavy cost- As a rule this sort of thing has not been considered by the Government when selling bush land, or in fact by any land company ; and the only grea; exception has been the Manchester Block, settled by a company whose policy it is, and has been, to make roads before selling the land, with such splendid and obvious results, that it is needless for us to make any further allusion to them here. That the Kiwitea and Harbour Board Blocks have the same natural advantages as the Manchester Block cannot be denied, and they merely need to be opened up to be rapidly and closely settled. Day by day we have pleasure in chronicling the ar rival of new settlers, who come not empty handed, but with considerable meant) to expend in clearing and fencing i heir properties, and ako to put on tbeir farms stock to enable them to earn a good liv- Jihood, while th-. iand is being prepared for more advanced farming in the shape of agri culture and sheep-raising in paddocks, which promises to be the preat source of revenue in a verv few years now the English meat market is open. Ihese contracts may have the effect of attracting 1 some of. the bush men from the Sounds where work is getting scarce fpr them. For sach m«n there is employment enough here for the next ten years.