THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1907. KING COUNTRY SETTLEMENT.

King Country Chronicle, Volume I, Issue 46, 6 September 1907, Page 2

THE KING COUNTRY CHRONICLE. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1907. KING COUNTRY SETTLEMENT.

The letter of a King Country settler, to which /Widespread reference has already bjbcn made," sheds a lurid light upoif the life of'the backbiocker in this district, and it is to be hoped the publicity given to the statements will have 'the effect of turning public attention to the ncccssit} r for making more generous provision for roading the remote and more recently settled districts of the North Island. There is no gainsaying the fact that much of the hardship undergone by the settlers could have been averted had the Government adopted a stronger attitude, and made provision for the roading of the land before opening it for settlement. A rather strange feature of the case is that the situation, if not actually created by, was, in no small measure, due to the clamourings of the city people and press for the opening of the land for settlement, the pressure thus exercised contributing largely to a hurried dnd premature action by the Government in certain King Country districts. In the circumstances it should reasonabty be expected that the same influences should be exercised in an effort to provide sufficient facilities and means of transit to make the lands so opened capable of production. As matters stand it is safe to say that a very large proportion of the King Country lands, which have been opened during the past five or six years, have up to the present returned nothing to the selectors, and have cost infinitely more to handle than should have been the case. The utter impossibility of making land productive under the conditions described by the Kiritehere settler, must be apparent to even the city dweller, who has never left the asphalt, and when it is added that almost exactly similar conditions exist through the length and breadth of the district, some idea of what is being lost to the country for the lack of decent roads, may be obtained. It is a simple matter, and quite a common custom, for the city man to take an academical interest in the subject, but it is only at odd times that the man who is hoeing that particular row in life, has the opportunity of being heard. The time-worn exhortation to " get 011 the land " slips glibly off the tongue of the city man, and the town worker spends much of his spare time in envying the lot of the country settler. Both the exhortation and the envy may be held in check, when it is recognised that in order to go on the land under existing conditions, the settler requires a substantial bank balance —far greater than would be the case if roads existed —combined with indomitable courage, and other attributes, necessary to combat the thousand and one hardships to which the city man is unaccustomed. However, both the exhortation and the envy would be forgiven if the city dwellers would assist loyally in obtaining a much-needed amelioration of the said conditions, which happy consummation would incidentally contribute largely to the prosperity and wealth of the cities. _ It is rarely that the human aspect of the subject is given prominence, but in the letter referred to, there is dispicted a record of human hardship such as is seldom associated with life in any part of the Dominion, and the writer may readily be pardoned for condemning in the strongest language, any authority or system which permits the existence of such a set of conditions ill a Country whose aim should be to invite, not retard, settlement in the remote districts.