SOUTH WESTLAND

Hokitika Guardian, 23 February 1921, Page 1

SOUTH WESTLAND

VISIT BY PROGRESS LEAGUE’S OFFICERS.

A MODEL FARM

(Lyttelton Times)

A motor trip made by Messrs A. G. Henderson (president of the Canterbury Progress League) and P. It. Oiimie' (organiser), fifty miles south of Hokitika on Friday was replete with interest. Their object was to see a model farm established-at Hari Hari hv .Messrs Duncan AtcLeau and Co:, of Greymouth. They were accompanied by Air Joseph Al’Lean, managing director of the firm, Afr D. J. Evans, clerk of the Westland County Council, and Mr T. W. Bruce, secretary of the Westland Hospital Board. The road, after running past deserted workings, monuments to the industry and perseverance of old-time miners, and through milled areas, enters the dark depths of forests still in all the bewildering luxuriance Nature beautifully created Trees 120 feet high stand close to the edge of the road, and stretch their branches over it. The white pine, utilitarian in character, famed in .Maori myths and legends, and stately in mien, is the dominant tree, but its more beautiful cousin, the red pine, often known by its Alaori name, rimu, is plentiful, and may be picked out by its pale green, tasselated, weeping branches, which give an aptness to its botanical name, Greek for tear-drop. .Many of the tree trunks art* covered . w ith lichens, mosses, parasites, and smaller plants; a wealth of banes gives the forest in that southern latitude a peculiarly tropical appearance ; and the natural fernery is one of the best in a country that claims a fern-leaf for its emblem. It is a fairy-land by day and a dream-land in. the moonlight. The loicsts are broken at intervals, as at Mr S. Ferguson’s. In those spaces, neat cottages, green meadows, and well-conditioned cattle have an air of contentment, prosperity, and happiness. Amongst the blackened trunks left h.v a burn, a soldier and bis English wife arc w inning a home from" the plants. Their cottage smiles amongst the blackened trunks the fire left standing. The road runs dose to the shore of Lake lantlie, a sheet of water about 12U0 acres in area, lying at the foot of Mount Bonnr. AH its banks are covered to the edge of the water with plants, just as Nature made them. It is part of an ancient lake, which, as linages passed, was filled by loose gravels. Mr Bruce, who, before native birds were protected, shot over the lake, informed the party that grey ducks, hrown and black teal, crested grebe, and other water birds are there in fairly large numbers -still, and that, w-ar.s ago, in one of the hays, ho saw the lure South Island thrush, and the i.nor South Island crow. The reason Im naming the lake after a goddess with a strange love story, is not apparent, but ii is a pretty name tor a beautiful lake, placed in a beautiful ..(tin:;. A.ll along the road there is a . irange absence of bird lile. In those magnificent forests on I* riday, there was less evidence of the presence ot native birds than may lie shown on many country roads in the tussocky plains of Canterbury. Forests are gleaming with scarlet in the north, but the rata’s blossoms have not yet opened in South Westland. As the common native mistletoe is almost a spring bloomer, i:s blooms, which rival the rata s, disappeared weeks ago. The road, consequently is devoid ot bright flowers. Modest native blue-bells —oftener white (hail blue —grow in the grass on the roadside, and ring silent paeans as they are pulled by every breath of wind. The greatest surprise of the trip was when the car ran put of the forests on to 17,000 acres of the Hari Hari Flat. It was originally a trackless swamp. It is now an oasis in the wilderness. Only three years ago, Messrs Duncan Al Lean and Co. began to drain 1000 acres of it owned by them. In that short time they have made the desert to blossom as the rose. Wheat, oats, clover, and turnips have taken the place of the hog plants, and an amazing transformation has been brought about. Air Joseph Al’Lean showed the visitors his cowshed, calf-shed, milking-sheds and plant, stables, barns, store-room, bullhouse, all on model lines, and a baystack with an iron roof, raised and lowered by means of weights. He has pure-bred'shorthorn cattle in the paddocks, pure-bred Berkshire' and’ \ot'kshire pigs in the piggery, pure-bred Clydesdale horses, and Italian bees. English trees are growing on the property. There are English flowers and shrubs in the garden. The farm shows the possibilities before tliat part ot Westland. The terminus of the railway is at Boss, some thirty miles away, but there is a good road into Han Hari. Only one stream, the Kakapotahi, needs bridging between Hokitika and H-iri Hari, and it is expected that that bridge will he built this -year. The rivers of South Westland will produce ■ rrcat power. At least 75,000 gross horse-power, or more than 50,000 electrical power, can he obtained from the Wait ah a and its main tributaries, except during times of minimum flow The Wanganui river, which is a shoit distance south of Hari Hari, and is larger than the Waital.a, will give pro-

portioiintely more power. It and its tributaries, it- is estimated, will give a little less than 150,000 horse-power. Near Ross, the chief centre of the district, there is deep auriferous ground that can be worked. There is a fairly good prospect of rich leads in untested parts of the Aloutere gravels; but attention now, apparently, is being turned to the besf means of placing cattle upon a thousand hills. In all parts of Westland people are waiting with impatience for the opening of the Arthur’s Pass Tunned. The approaching completion of the tunnel and the potentialities of water-power, have created a sanguine spirit on the Coast, which, it is believed, will enter a time Of prosperity much greater than it experienced in the days of its gold rushes.

The party left Hari Hari late in the afternoon, had tgn at Air Ferguson’s, and travelled most of the way back in the moon light, reaching Hokitika about f) p.m. There Mr Evans heartily thanked Messrs Henderson and Climie for their visit. He spoke gratefully of the interest taken by the Canterbury Progress League in Westland. Messrs Henderson and Climie said that the leagite was out to help Westland as much at Canterbury. They complimented Air APLean on his enterprise at Hari Hari, and on the public spirit he has shown. The Christchurch visitors loft* Hokitika at 8 a.m. on Saturday, motored to Otira through the valley of the Taraiiiakau, and came l>v coach and train to Christchurch. Air S. E. Clements, who lias the contract for tho mail service between Otira and Hokitika, personally drove the party through South Westland and to Otira.