DEVELOPING JACKSON BAY DISTRICT.

Hokitika Guardian, 15 December 1923, Page 1

DEVELOPING JACKSON BAY DISTRICT.

lllv an old Pioneer). It is generally recognised that if the Government intend to open up the far South, they should 'make a start at Jackson Hay and the llritish oGvernuiont’s oiler ol assistance by loans to the Dominions for development purposes, should he taken advantage of, Fifty wars ago Sir Julius Vogel, the then Prime Minister, went oil the London market for l”, 000,000 for public works, ilie starting of the main south toad from Itoss and the special settlement at Jackson Hay was part of the scheme. This was never carried out lo a finish. The road was only made to Copper Creek, and Iron! b miles short oi the 1 laast river to the Arawato river a distance of some JO miles. Traffic is -till carried on along the sea beaches. When the special settlement was launched and a few hundred settlers landed al Jackson Hay a great opportunity was lost in not giving them employment in eon si rue ting the two bridges-the Arawata and Waitotoand constructing the road to Okuru only 10 miles in length. Money was cheap and wages low and a great opportunity was lost as if the settlers got. employment on roads and bridges for the first 1 - months or so they would have been aide to got a footing and taken up land. Instead of this course being followed the settlers were given 10 j acre sections, up the Arawata river j and live or six miles of road was con- ! strueted to open up and give settlers access to their holdings. ;

The (iovernmenL kept a store, which was replenished by the Waipara every two or three months. 'The Waipara received C.SoO a year as a Government subsidy and 1 believe was the starting of the subsidised steam service to . South Westland, which is now reduced lo t-Tlill. 1 cannot- say how long the service was continued to Jackson Hay. but as there were no public works, started to speak of, and no other outlook of employment, the settlers gradually left to seek fresh fields and pastures new. It was the survival of the fittest and the present generation in charge arc Hie descendants of the old worthy pioneers and are working out their own destiny. My suggestion lor the Government to oiitain a loan of say CoO.flOO from the Hrilish Government to open up the Okuru and Jackson Hay districts may seem a large order, hut. when wo conic to know what has boon done in other localities, Ido not think' it is much out of the way. A member of the Central Otago Expansion League speaking to the British Emigration delegates at Dunedin some lime ogo, told them that land in Central Otago that would carry only one sheep to three acres had been brought under profitable cultivation, that, the Government had expended thousands of pounds in irrigation works and that that district was now a very prosperous locality in the fruit growing industry. Xow when we weigh in the balance what the Government hatdene lor Central Otago in comparison with wliai thev have done lor South West land, surely my suggestion is not ext ravagant. I believe Al r Morpeth, our Chief Commissioner, is keenly alive to the importance of developing South Westland. There are two parties of surveyors ill the Southern district at present- one aC Ivarangarua, the other at Okuru. There is another party wanted in the Far South badly. Some two years ago at the local bodies conference at the Town Hall. Hokitika. a resolution was carried asking the Minister for Internal Affairs to have a geographeial survey of South Westland. It was undesrtood that the iT'piost wa> favourably considered hut, so far nothing has been done to fulfil the promise. In concluding this rather lengthy article 1 will merely add: If our very worthy Premier. Mr Massey. could only be induced to turn bis eyes on South Westland 1 feel sure lie would not slop half-way in the scheme of development. I hone some abler pen than mine may take up the good cans# later nil.