OPENING THE MOKAU.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 367, 7 June 1911, Page 6

OPENING THE MOKAU.

(From the "Taranaki Herald.")

During the last four or five years the Government has not treated Taranaki well in the matter of opening up Crown lands for settlement. Most of the land actually offered has been difficult of access or of a broken character, much of it forfeited by previous selectors on those grounds. The area offered for the first time has been small, and altogether disproportionate to the demand. Hence the sons of old settlers who desired to take up land for themselves have had to go out to other districts, while people coming here from other parts of the Dominion looking for Crown lands have had to pass on. Thanks, however, to private enterprise, a large area of virgin bush country will be opened for settlement within the next twelve or eighteen months. We refer, of course, to the Mokau lands, lately acquired by a wealthy syndicate whose headquarters is at Palmerston North. These lands have hitherto blocked the progress of settlement in that direction cutting off the south-western part of the Auckland land district from the settled portion of Taranaki. At last this obstacle is to be removed. The land abutting on the south bank of the Mokau river for about fifty miles is to be subdivided and roaded at once, while on the north bank the land for many miles has been lately acquired by men who have the means and are taking the initial steps to bring it into profitable occupation, so that within a few months a very large extent of country, totalling perhaps 70,000 or 80,000 acres, hitherto a solitude, unbroken except for a small sawmill or two and a small coal mine, will resound with the axes of bushmen. The coal measures, too, are to be worked much more extensively than hithertp, This means the investment of a large amount of capital and the employment of a great number of men in preparing the way for settlers, whose houses and dairy factories will soon follow. It is easy to see that this development of the Mokau country will have an important effect on New Plymouth, if we are quick enough and enterprising enough to take advantage of the trading opportunities it will give us. The Mokau river fornn a splendid highway, serving the purpose of a main road, traversing the heart of the country under notice for fully fifty miles, as well as being a thoroughfare, when snagging is done, to the Upper Mokau district and on to the Mam Trunk railway. moijtfo of the river ie only about forty miles from the breakwater, and the fact that steamers need not consider the state of the tide here, though they must at Mokau and at Waitara, will give this port a substantial advantage in catering for the large trade which will grow up in the immediate future. This particular advantage is to be mgde use of by the company working the eoai mines, and this wij! be made the chief distributing centre for the output. In a very few years the Mokau valley will have a very large output of butter, cheese, wool, and other produce, the bulk of which will find its way here for transhipment to England, helping to fill up ocean liners at the breakwater, while the coal, timber, limestone, etc., will ftirnjsh cargo for a fleet of small vesaelti, which will find return freight in the stores required by the settlers, miners, and others engaged in developing the resources of the Mokau district. It is satisfactory to learn that the parties who have acquired the land have agreed to cooperate with the Government in preserving, as far as possible, the scenic glories of the river, for we look forward to a time when the river will be an important tourist route, embracing the Waitomo Caves. We doubt whether there is anything finer in New Zealand than will be the trip from r £e Kuiti to New Plymouth, doing the Waitomo Caves, the Mokau river, and Mount Messenger en route, with Mount Egmont as a further attraction at this end. The opening of the Mokau may therefore be described as a matter of very great moment to this town and port.