King Country Chronicle Wednesday, January 4, 1911. TE KUITI AND THE KING COUNTRY.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 325, 4 January 1911, Page 4

King Country Chronicle Wednesday, January 4, 1911. TE KUITI AND THE KING COUNTRY.

Before wo decided to throw in our lot with the destiny of Te Kuiti and the King Country, we had every confidence not only in the future of the town itseif, but of the whole of the important and developing district whih surrounds it. Since then we have had more ample opportunities of studying the conditions which are making for the industrial and commercial growth of the Rohe Potae, and our earlier impressions have been strongly confirmed. We are pleased to notice that this confident outlook has been supported by an independent journalist. Mr R. J. Eames, who is

' just now engaged in writing a series of articles on "Rural New Zealand," for a syndicate of newspapers. After ■ referring to the dairying progress at 1 Pio Pio, which is described as being "typical of many other factories in the Auckland district," the writer referred to remarks that "the country : immediately to the south of Pio Pio may be taken as the southern boundary of a great dairying district of the future, with its centre at Te Kuiti." i The article goes en to say:— "So far there has been no dairy factory established at Te Kuiti, although it is more than likely that the negotiations now in progress will be brought to a head next year. A little to the north there is dairying, but the cream has to be railed a considerable distance. An examination of this district dicsloses enormous prospective expansion. To the ease of Te Kuiti (situated i on the Main Trunk line) there are 1 40 mlies of territory practically j untouched by a white man. Here i the Government have interests in ! 100,000 to 150,000 acres of land. ! There are also about 200,000 acres of native land which is ! being sold at £1 to £2 per acre. There is any amount of fine bU3h 1 country. Large areas have been taken up at 6d or Is per acre : (lease) for speculative purposes. These leasing rights are now being sold to bona fide settlers at £1 per acre. To the south of this I centre there is no town nearer than Taumarunui, 50 miles away. | In this direction there are fair grazing lands, but it cannot be i described as good country. To i the west, in the Mairoa district I and the Oparure Valley, there is I really excellent land, more or less ! improved, at from £5 to £lO per ! acre. What has been described '■ as 'real Taranaki bush' is coming down by the thousand acres every year and leaving fine land for dairying, to which industry, up to the present, no attention has been paid. To the north the nearest town of importance is Hamilton, 50 miles away. The dairying centre of which we have I spoken will, of course, operate into that district as far as possible. As showing the rate at which farming has been develop- ! ing it may be mentioned that during the last financial year more ' sheep were imported into Te Kuiti than into any other station between JMarton and Auckland. It is a district in the rough, but astonishing progress is being, and has been made, during the past live years. One of the great assets of the place are the limestone deposits, which furnish ! agricultural line, lime for cc- | merit, and rock for ballasting. \ 'Within an area of five miles of ; the town,' said the Mayor to the i writer, 'there is sufficient lime- ; stone to metal every road in the Dominion.' "

■Of courcP, a good deal more might have been said by way of illustrating : the surprising forward step:; that this district has taken during the past few j years. So far as the town itsdf i 3 concerned the main roads which con-

verge upon it ensure its becoming a railway centre of first-rate importance. Unlike some other towns along ; the Main Trunk line Te Kuiti has no vital dependence upon timber as its life and mainstay, for no sooner is the bush down than the fertile lands richly lend themselves to the grazier ' and the dairyman. The many fine dwellings which have lately been ' erected speak eloquently of the assuredness with which the future is on all hands regarded, and we fully her lieve that every stick of timber and ; every brick that has been used haa i been abundantly justified by the proj ductivity of the district, actual and l potential.