HAURAKI PLAINS LAND

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5496, 4 November 1929, Page 2

HAURAKI PLAINS LAND

NEW AREAS FOR SETTLEMENT.

SIGNIFICANT INDICATIONS.

A great change in the geography of Hauraki Plains will be apparent in a couple of years’ time if the signs indicated by the nature of the work which the Lands Drainage Department now has in hand are read rightly.

These signs indicate tjiat the lands bordering the Waitakaruru-Maukoro canal, and comprising 140 sections totalling about 18 square miles, are nearing the stage when they can be opened for settlement of some kind. Very marked progress has been made of late with the construction of this canal, and at the present time the dredge is again approaching the Torehape road, and bringing up bucketfuls of clay. It is therefore appar- . ent that on its next passage to and from the dam near the extension of Orchard West Road practically nothing but clay will be lifted. This indicates that the end of the work on this section is in sight, for the cut passes through the area where the peat was the deepest, being over 32ft in the early days. Now the clay is only twelve feet or so below the surface, and the consolidation of the * country bordering the canal is very marked. The direction of flow in the drains of the locality has been altered and the water now goes down the : canal towards Waitakaruru.

It seems probable that the dams in the canal, which have hitherto been required to back up the water so that the dredge would float, will not be required when the dredge commences to move downhill after crossing Torehape Road. Should this be a fact, and the dams are withdrawn, the country will come in very quickly. A sign that this is what is going to happen is afforded by the fact that as part of the Government’s unempolyment relief scheme men are now being employed to dig sectional boundary drains at about 20-chain intervals and at right angles to Torehape road. A camp of sixteen two-berth; tents and a large cookhouse-dining room has been established near Torehape, and batches of unemployed are arriving from Auckland and Thames. Nineteen men arrived from Auckland on Thursday afternoon last. Presumably they will be employed on wages for a few days, until they get to understand the work, and will then be formed into small co-operhtive contract parties. This was the system at similar work on the Kerepeehi block, where Crown land is being drained as though for early settlement, and where the blackberries are being cut, as suggested some months ago by this paper as being suitable work for unemployed. It is to be hoped that the blackberries and other weeds on the area about the present camp will be dealt with in a*similar manner.

It has been stated on many occasions by Cabinet Ministers that the work of the Lands Drainage Department on the Hauraki Plains would be completed in a few years’ time ; but .the length of time which the area to be served by the canal has been in process of being drained, and the slow progress made, has diverted attention from the fact that this area would Jiave to be made fit for settlement before the department could consider its work completed. In the opinion of many competent judges the land will make excellent farms, and will come in quickly When the water in the canal is lowered. The work now being undertaken is possibly being done with the purpose of hastening the consolidation and decay of the peat, so that the whole area from Waitakaruru can be made available for selection about the same time. In reply to the frequent representations by the Waitakaruru and Pipiroa Ratepayers’-Association to have the lands near the sea end of the canal made available for settlement, the Minister of Lands has consistently replied that the time is not ripe, but he has never given an indication as to how long it will be before that time is likely to arrive. Obviously, it will be a year or two, but it is in sight, and when it does come, and 140 sections are settled, Hauraki Plains will have made another rapid advancement.