TAUPO RAILWAY

Hokitika Guardian, 19 September 1929, Page 6

TAUPO RAILWAY

VAILE’S PETITION. (By Telegraph—Fer Press Association.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 18. Hearing of. evidence in connection with the petition 0 f Ernest Vaile and others to laupo Railway be resumed, was continued to-day. Frederick Carr ltollett, agricultural •journalist, said ho had long experience of pumi.ee lands, and believed the Taupo-Rotorua district could successfully settle a large number of producers. It was the only land in the Dominion that offered the opportunity at reasonably cheap cost. If the proposed line were put forward at stages and Crown lands settled in small areas, a population of great importance would be established. There, was a tremendous area of easily plougliable land which 1 could lie made permanently productive on.each side of the proposed route. Further down, east of the lake, there were further valleys which offered great productive possibilities. The work done by the Prisons Department at Hautau had shown wha.t could be done with pumice lands. Some thousans of acres had been broken in and good-work had also been accomplished on. tho hill lands. Good results -.were also achieved at the prison camp in the Tingariro Valley. Other valleys wore also capable of carrying good, snug little farms. Witness expressed surprise and indignation that tho State had allowed so much nice country, which could be cut up into farms, to be locked up in forests for 100 years or more. Good roads through the district would certainly open up land for settlement, but not so economically as a railway would. He did not see. how it would be possible to convty heavy traffic by motor, and he believed that a railway was absolutely essential for the carriage of immense quantities of timber.

Witness expressed the opinion that with the use of fertilisers, the line between Taupo and Rotorua could he made more productive than in the Waihi district. The construction of the railway would practically lead to the establishment of a new South Auckland province. Some good tobacco loaf was grown in the district. Mr A. Hansson (State Forestry Service) said the first trees would be ready for cutting in ten years, the growth being very rapid, but subsidiary lines would be required to tap the timber areas.

Henry M. Martin, farmer, stressed the value of Rotorua lands for farming. It grew almost ahy crops satisfactorily. The rainfall was quite good. After £7 per acre was spent, including building, the land would carry a cow to 2} acres. It was suitable '.for .small farms'; The soil improved, rapidly once opened up to the sun. Settlement would be very slow without the railway. •

In answer to Col. McDonald, who spoke of the country in East TVairarapa, 100 miles from a railway, witness said that the conditions were not equal, as that was first class land. Mr TV. T. Parsons, farmer, said he had fanned in the district for . 16 years and considered the country lent itself to close cultivation. It responded well to phosphatie treatment. He believed that the railway would bring settlement. The land could be brought into grass for £6 per acre. Mr William A. Parnliam, farm manager, said that he had broken in about 1250 acres of pumice land in five 'years. It had been very easily cultivated and broken in at a cost of about £5 per acre. He believed the area could be well settled with small farms, and he knew no other land that could carry a dairy cow so cheaply. The land was capable of giving a return in crops within a year with ploughing.

To Air Semple, witness said the speediest method of settlement would bo to break the land in by means of group settlement, and enable those men to take up farming areas. The land could not be profitably settled without a railway. William George Butcher, farm manager, Roporoa, said he was the first settler in the district 35 years ago when access was by pack horse. He knew the country right through to Tokaanui. He estimated the cost of bringing pumice land into fair pasture, capable of carrying three cows to the acre, at about £5 an acre. The land was capable of producing a vigorous type of settler. He had seen work on the railway in progress, and all that work had been done by means of the shovel, whereas a big saving could have been effected with a horse scoop.

Questioned by Mr R. Semple, the witness said he thought a 50 acres farm would be too small. He favoured farms of 150 acres or 200 acres to start with. He said the country could settle all of. the unemployed on the land. The stoppage of the railway was a great mistake. A railway would enable farmers to get cheap manures, and with facilities that it would provide a new settler, who could not fail to make good. He went there when there was not even road access, and managed to exist. If a bitumen road were constructed, witness maintained that another would have to be laid alongside it for, the purpose of stock.. Tho majority who had gone on pumice land had done well, despite adverse circumstances. The committee adjourned until to-morrow (Thursday) morning.