Kawhia.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 301, 15 March 1907, Page 2

Kawhia.

AN OFF-THE-MAP ELYSIUM. A PORT OF THE FUTURE. [Wbllington Timbs, March 2nd, 1907] Mr. W. R. Morris. Controller cf Money Orders and Savings Banks and and Accountant, has returned from a holiday visit to that seldom mentioned Wwst. Coast (North Island) p >rt, Kswhia. The parenthesis are, Mr Morri.consider-', necessary, as the bulk of the Welling’on public, he is sure, has no very c ear idea as to whau Kawhia is or where it is. Without any rbyme or reason the place has been given over to Auckland with the result that one of tho fairest in all New Zealand, one blessed with a capital harbour, finsstretches of good country, beautiful : ecenery, and rich in historical attract ions is neglected. This of course, cannot last-—the place is to good for that. During the Christmas holidays there were dozens of people having a '‘quiet look round,” and were it not for the difficulties that beset the acquirement of tbe large areas of native lands in the Kawhia district, settlement would i progress a good deal more rapidly than ■ is the case, fcjtill there are those who think well enough of the district to | delve into the intricacies of e title to a block cf lend with a bandied cr so i . jbz.cn*?, <?■'£>■,p’r a iGg.’s • xre very tEtlsncd wK-b tsoic IcA

“It wants some of Wellington’s surplus energy to “shake things up” in Kawhia. It is being neglected from a trade point of view, and there are anomalies that should not exist, which are detrimental to the progress of the place. Generally speaking the settlers say that the Wellington quotations are better than those of Auckland, though the former place is three times farther away. That would not be a bar to trade if there was any connection, but all there is at present is the little steamer Kia Ora, which makes about a weekly trip between New Plymouth and via way ports. There is one .anomaly that indicates pretty neatly how Kawhia suffers—the freight on goods from Oaehunga to Waitara is 12a 6d per ton (and the steamer can only get over the Waitara bar on the top of the tide indsylight), while that to Kawhia half the distance (with 30ft of water on the bar at high tide) is 17s 61. It was the sort of thing that irritated people. Mr Morris is enthsi&stic over Ka- I whin’s beautiful harbour, which he says, is larger than that of Wellington. It has a fine dear entrance, half a mile in width, and there is a depth of sixty feet of water in the channel a little way from the wharf, which is erected conveniently on a shelf. The “Kawhia Settler." a weekly production issued from an office, the piles of which are lapped by the tide at high water (the assumption being that it goes to press when the .tide is out) has announced over a considerable period that the Union Company intends to make Kawhia a port of call for the Corinna on her Dunedin - Lyttelton-Wollington-Onehunga run, but up till the New Year the proposed new service had not been inaugurated. The country round about is hilly—not much more than undulating, and moss of it is ideal sheep country, being of limestone foundation. In the harbour are picturesque pinnacles and towers of limestone, woven into fantastic shapes, round the bases of which are clusters of delicious rock oysters. Rakanui River, too, fs quite a ebow place owing to the action of centuries having fretted the limestone into quaint imitations of old castles and stately ruins. The harbour teems with a variety of fine fish—echnapper, kawhai, and Sounders.