RATEPAYERS’ ASSOCIATION.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4398, 3 April 1922, Page 3

RATEPAYERS’ ASSOCIATION.

© — annual function. VITAL. INTERESTS AT STAKE. A very good muster attended the annual s.oci.al evening of the Tirohla-Rotokohu-Pereniki Association, held ,ip the Criterion Hotel dining rooms’, where mine host, Mr Roigard, laid p.ut a tastefully arranged table. Mr L. Ei. Cassrels, president, occupied the chair, and the function commenced with the usual loyal toast. . REVIEW AND FORECAST. The chairman surveyed the ;alms and objects of the Association as follows : In requesting you to be present tonight an invitation was sent out asking you to be sure to come\ in flact',' th? invitation was, more of an urgent appear than an invitation. We few, who have been working in the interests of all of you, though not complaining of , the inconvenience to ourselves, .are certainly complaining at the lack of support we receive from you others who will share equally with us the benefits eventually to be derived ifrom activity such as we deem essential, and are therefore working for. Personally, it is quite beyond me to understand how you can remain so apathetic !.o your own best interests. This meeting to-night, you will see, is really a social gathering, but it is really an endeavour to win your interest tor yourselves.. Meeting after meeting has been called, with 1 the mos* disappointing and hope-destroying sameness of results. The difficulties of attending at night, after a day of heavy work, applies equally to those who c’o attend. Still, we do not ask your continual attendance -if it, is not possible, but we do ask that you permit and order that those who do meet do so with your mandate, your moral, and, if necessary, financial, backing.

I. can only explain to myself in one way the deadly apatjhy—and if my explanation is wrong I should say selfish apathy—of the majority of settlers in the Rotokohu, Tirohia, and Pereniki areas, The explanation is thad you actually do not see the opportunity that is waitipg to be seized. You cannot be alive to the great possibilities of this area ; you cannot surely realise the absolute actual bearing of the advancement of the whole area upon yourselves as (individuals. , The point 7 you must, consider 's this : Wiia.t are you on your farms for? Are you there to struggle and strive and just barely wrest a living from the soil until your knees grow stiff and your backs ache and you physically become unable to continue ? To gradually but painfully become aware of .the fact that not only have you been wasting your own lives, but also the lives of those that are dear to you, in the battle against odds (which you alone anl unaided cannot overcome ? That, I say, is a point you’ve got .to consider. There are many of us‘ w!hb have gone into this area as young men with good hopes—l will not say high hopes, because I believe that none of us want more than sufficient to keep us and oprs and a little over for a rainy day.

I say we have gone in with modern ate hopes; and as sure as' we arel here to-night' the only way tp realise our hopes .is to throw aside our apathy and to actively combine and fight for the conditions that will enable the work that is being put in to come to fruition? If we do work together with a will, each for all and all for each, we shall, positively not only see our moderate hopes fulflled, but I firmly believe actually exceeded. T said before that you cannot be alive to the possibilities ofi your area. I really believe that, very few could actually, in so many words, state, the requirements better than you realise the advantages and possibilities, and yet a; very little thought must show you what the possibilities actually are. Now, the geographical position of this area is such thal it must naturally combine tihe ' greatest possibilities with the greatest disabilities. In the first place, .the greatest possibilities are due to the wonderful productive qualities ofl the soil, of our area. The greatest disability, geographically, is due to the very liability to the floods that in the first place washed this rich/soil on to the area and which, gave us the humus in the soil.

The area is far bigger than most of ns realise. Including the whole of Rot'okohu Valley to the top of the hills there are, roughlyi, 7100 .acres. Of this 7100 acres some 4100 acres are in the lowMlying swamp area, which is the’ area most directly affected by the flooding proclivity.-. Now, in’order to give sbme very moderate idea of the value of this 4100 acres, let us, look at some approximate figures. ' The figures are, I have said, approximate; but they are near-enough tb illustrate the possibilities, and err on the low side, as later figures will show. There are Iri the low area 4100 acres'. This country if protected from flood and drained will carry, say, one cow to three acres—most of it will certainly carry much more when -farmed, more likely a cow to 1% acres. However, 'one cow to three acres means 1400 cows. At an average production of 2001 b of butter fat per cow (though I do not believe we would- keep cows- of so low an average), and. with butter-fat at only Is per lb, the average would be £lO per cow pdr annum, or from 1400 cows £14,000 per annum.. This production capitalised at 7 per cent, means a value of £14'0,000 on the 4100 acres of land'. For. the total area (say, 2000 acres) in use last year (about 1000 of whieii would be actually milked on), as near as I can ascertain Che production of butter-fat was 126,5901 b, the Value of w.hich last year,, and what has actually been paid out for it, is RIB.W, and which at Is 6d per lb

equals £9500. The total area producnig this, in an actually farmed productive state, cannot be more than 1000 acres. I have said that the advantages of the district are less realised than the disadvantages, even by you who live in the area. You must now realise the productive possibilities; But, from the point of view ofl the place to ’ive. tell me any area which will ever compete with, this if your apathy will only change into energy. We are within a very few miles of the railway, post office; and we have electric light, and power to our doors: t)he telehpone is available to all wh? want it, a great many are actually connected io and using town water. Our disabilities are bad roads and bad drainage and. floods. All of these can be remedied and our lot as farmers made the most enviable in New Zealand if we will cast aside o.ur .apathy and make a combined effort, a persistent effort, an effort! that will no,t admit of discouragement. A. little later I will' propose that everyone present not already a member of the Rotokohu Association and who is in the area become a member, anl would atk them to sign the enrolment form which, will be circulated. Thie Association, though a live one, through lack of support in the pas' has been very informal, and I propose that at next, meeting we shall elect twp patrons; a president, vicepresident, an executive committee of three, a secretary-treasurer; also that a quorum of the committee consist of three, and that a quorum at a general meeting be seven. I pro- 1 pose that these officers when elected draw up rules and regulations for the government Of the association for the purpose of registration, and that they shall then call a special generah meeting for the adoption of the rules. •

SELF-HELP., The Mayor, Mr P. E. Brenan, said that the Association had the Borough Council’s sympathy and support, but, being outside the borough boundary, its sympathy could hot take a practical form. He endorsed the remarks of the chairman that the members Would have to display self-reliance. The Couhcil hpd written to the Government asking for protection and assistance for settlers in their difficulties. xßut if those interested would not band themselves together, then tjhey would not get much more forward. The Minister of Lands anl Railways would visit Paeroa on Tuesday, and that would give an opportunity of putting their claims forward. I The Deputy-f Mayor, Mr Edwin Edwards. said that no association could succeed unless it had the backing on, the people it represented. Interest, li in the Association was lacking. The I spirit of self-help was necessary before any progress could be made However, the peolpe in the borough were fully alive to the value of the farming industry, and Would assist those engaged therein as 1 far as possible.

Cr. Wilfred Johnstone '(Ohinemuri County Council) endorsed the plea for self-help. The Council would certainly give the Association ail the moral support it could. The chairman cbmmented that Paeroa district had been very fortunate in its riding members. Mr Keeling had done a lot of good for the area, and Mr Johnstone, in his ridipg, had with his fellow-ratepayers, taken it upon themselves to metal a road. VALUE OF ORGANISATION. Mr W. D. Keys paid a to the Paeroa Chamber of Commerce, which had always tried fo ; forward all progressive ; movements. They kept Paeroa on. the inap.. Mr Keys went on to say that the 'erection of stop»-banks would do much ,to prpvide reproductive work for the unemployed. .

Mr D. Leach, viceLpresident pf the Paeroa Chamber of Commerce, saiJ he believed the Chamber had done something to .advance .the progress of the town! and district. The Thames V,alley Electric Power Board afforded a good instance of what energy and organisation could dp. The forty or fifty members of the Rotokohki Ratepayers’ Association could really achieve their aims if they were alive and persistent. He, however, deprecated the bringing tap of debatable matters in regard to (engineering proposals The results, [were what mattered. Dissension was the very thing the Government was looking for ottfen as an excuse for doing nothing. The protection of the area had been promised by the Government, and the business of the Association was to keep ,on agitating until that protection was provided., If each member set out tp get another member the Association would soon be strong and powerful.

REMARKABLY FERTILE LAND, The 1 chairman -alluded to the proposal of making Rotokohu, or at least Pereniki, a policing aera. He hoped full notice and compensation would be given. Mr McLeod said the bulwark «?f the community was the farming industry, upon the state of which tihe prosperity of all commerce ultimately depended. It was a crying, shame to see thousands of acres of- good land going to w,aste because of the deposit of debris and flooding- The land in question was of remarkable fertility, and in Ms c.ase carried 24 cows and other stock to 30 acre?. Property brought in? and treated with a special dressing for swamp land for a certain sourness in the land, would carry a cow; to the acre. With such land on the borough' border the settlers ought to- ijecefve all assistance to get protection, oP full compensation. Mr A. White referred to ifhe need for making every acre of- land- productive. This, was amply Illustrated during the war. Mniing was an industry of sldort life, but Igood land would continue to produce while the earth lasted. FRIENDLY NATIVE FEHLING. The. friendly feeling between the native race and the Europeans Was referred to by the Mayor. (Mr Haora Tererenui' bad done good iwotk in

putting up a stop-ibank for the protection of his own land. RANGATIRA’S REMINISCENCES. Responding, Mr Haora Tererepui made a characteristic native response, Mr Peki interpreting. He had been in Paeroa since 1865, he and Mr Wells, and Mr John Thorp in 1857. In those days there were no big floods. In 1887 he saw a big flood, but since then they had been bigger every time. The river had become filled with silt, and this reduced the capacity pf the river and caused floods. The mines ruined the river. Now. on two recent occasions floods had covered his land with silt, which made previously excellent land worthless. The land had been reduced in productivity by half. He used to raft timber on’ the Ohinemuri River in 1871, where Mr Buchanan lives, the bush then being owned oy Mr Mitchell. He used an 18 feet spear to get eels with, the river being of that depth then. The Public Works stop-banks, he thought, would encroach on the land so much that the Maori would have to put one foot on the land he had left and the other in the air. (Laughter.) He had seen big boats come right, up past Paeroa. z He fleared the stop-bank would encroach on the Maori burial ground. This would be a sacrilege. The Maori had got the worst of the deal in regard to floods. There was a deed made between the Maoris and Waihi goldminers, to the effect that the lease stipulated that the mining must not damage the Maori land by. silt. Pereniki’s Bend cut would af-. ford great relief. lif the ipining kept going, and the be-nd was cut the mining would still ruin the land.

ONCE A FINE RIVER. Mr Mungi, another native, endorsed the remarks of the previous speaker. The Ohinemuri was a fine river, at one time, the water being crystal clear. On one occasion a bov was drowned in the river, "and his body was seen from a canoe, though the Water was sixteen feet in depth. But the mining debris had made the river foul, and raised the bed. At that, time Mr A. Cassrels had a farm on ‘he river bank. A boat called the "Torch” came up the river once, and stopped at the junction. She was 140. feet in length,, with 9 fleet draught. The land was first-class. The river at one .time came over by Handley’s house for a day, and then went away, but now it stayed there and played a tune' under the house for about a fortnight., VALUABLE NATIVE EVIDENCE LOST. Mr Haora Tfirerenui added that he thought that as the, natives were here before the Europeans the former ought to be called in to give evidence before the .Commissions. The chairman said that natives as weir as anyone else were fully entitled to give evidence, bu.t the pubished invitation was in English only, but should also have been in Maori. Mr Vuglar said tihat there was no possibility of effective drainage until the river was dredged, as the river backed up and forced the water back on the land.

IMPORTANCE OF NAVIGATION.' Mr Edwards stressed the fact pf Paeroa being at the head of navigation ; the town was, in a position to be the navigation head for the whole district right to Tauranga. With the railway through, Paeroa would be the distributing station for produce north, south, east, and west. Three commissions had advocated the dredging of the river and lowering ■the level of the water. The drains would be useless l if the bed of the river was allowed to come higher and higher every year. It was decided that a deputation wait upon the Minister for Lands on Tuesday. Two very good recitations were rendered by Mr T. /Buckley, and were greatly enjoyed.