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Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2082, 17 May 1907, Page 3

Mr. J. M. Taylor, who is managing tho Opolio estate for Mr. Powdrell, of Mnnaia, has brought that place to a surprising stato of dovelopmont, snys tho AVairoa Guardian. It would be an object lesson in farming to many of our settlors to see what can ho done with swamp country, judiciously drained. This place was formerly nothing but au impracticable swamp. Mr. Taylor has straightened out the old crock-bed, and made it into a kind of canal. Cattle and sheep are now grazing where a year since the water would have been over their beads. Now tindor tho heaviest rains the flat is quite dry. It shows our farmers what can bo done with land which is lying idle as useless swamp, and the land when reclaimed is rich with tho alluvial deposits of years. Under the heading “Gisborno to Opotiki,” tho Opotiki Herald remarks:—When people arc dealing with big projects they aro apt to view askance tho little tilings which pertain to life. AVo have all heard of the good boy who laid the foundation of his fortune by pic'king up a pin but nowadays pins arc so common that wo pass them by. For some years there has boon considerable agitation with tho object of obtaining better means of communication with om neighbours over Gisborno way: first by railway and second by means of the celebrated Pnkihi road. These are two big projects and while we have been working them up, in the meantime wo have been neglecting the little tilings which possess an importance which perhaps we do not recognise. At the present time there

is a good deal of traffic and business between Opotild and Gisborne which Quito warrant a better mail service than that which exists. There is a bi-woeklv mail from Gisborne to Motu, but there it stops, all mail matter having to go round by Auckland. The subject has been exercising the minds of one or two settlers and we anticipate that our local bodies, with their usual enterprise, will take it tip.