A Pen Picture Of Kawhia.

Kawhia Settler and Raglan Advertiser, Volume IV, Issue 327, 23 August 1907, Page 3

A Pen Picture Of Kawhia.

[PaBIaTUA HERALD-] A correspondent supplied the following description of Kawhia, which baa come into pr< minence of late in connect! n with the wreck of the Kia Ora, this being the place where the survive rs were able to obtain food and clothing, after their trying experiences. Before the Maori war, says our correspondent, Kawhia was famous for the wheat it exported. As many as 27 brigs and tobooners were known to assemble here to load wheat for Sydney, the Maoris being paid in kind, tobacco, spirits, and other things being exchanged, for wheat. Since the war all that country has been allowed to run back to fern growing and waste. Wheat in small guanlities is still grown along the Aotea beach. The one great drawback to the whole district is the M tori lend that settlers cannot acquire ard which the Maoris are willing to sell or lease. When the Government is awakened and compel el to open up tbe?e iacds. Kawhia will soon boom. It will have its freezing works and coal mine iu next to no lime. In twu blocks alone 185,000 acres of the best 1 nd is looked up, besides which all the foreshore for two miles around is Maori land. The settlers are at the back of this land, atd get no assistance from the Maori lands for the purpose of roadmaking, and have to do the fencing themselves. There are valuable limestone and coal deposits here and a railway to connect them with the Main Trunk Line would make Kawbia the port for the Waimariuo forest and all the centre of the island. The railway would be about 22 miles long. Ocean-going boats could coal here, and good ocalis very bandy—in fact, would be along the railway line. The Kawhia district appeals to tbo settler and oilers countless beautiful homestead tiles. Numbers of good settlers with c mfori able homes are already bare. When we New Zealanders learn to ap p.-1 ci ate the advantages of climate and scenery provided so bountifully around tbr Kawhia Harbour and along its beautiful rivers and inlets every spot will have its settler. The sheep farmer, tbo fruit glower, and the land-owntog fi lnrman will live and flourish here. What opportunities these places eff-rtomen and women, avenues for pr-r.O ful healthy lives ! If our race were not mad with the desire for city life, how it could transform these barfa ,ur solitudes into vegetable gardens of delight. Think of what could be d n ’ with Kawhia, wl e i apple orchards ii led the hollow.-, and vines grew on ihe slop, s, with hmon and other trees, instead of the manuka, and when short sweet grass supplanted the fern ! What a race c >uld grow up here I Strong, clean-limbed and free, fitting descen dints of sturdy pioneers, who are men of pluck, push and principle, and who to conquer the forest and win freehold f rms must exercise much grit, gumption and go, and who deserve ail they win and more. There is a splendid fleet of oil launches that serve all parts of the harbour and inlets thereof, and the scenery on some of the rivers is simply beyond description and must be seen to be appreciated. I would wish for no nicer holiday than to live in quiet Kawhia township and journey in one of the many launches to different• parts of the harbour. There is one drawback, and that is, that the names of places are unspellable and unpronounceable. This is very interesting history in connection with the place, about missionaries, etc., and especially about the renowned warrior Te Rauparabaand other chiefs and rhe wars before the advent of the pakeba. < Here at Te Rau-a-moa we are on’.y an easy day’s ride from the famous Waitomo caves aud still more wonder ful caves of tbe Raukuri. There are rumours and iulicalions hat some of the native land will be available for ciuse settlement uhortly—that means a few years, I suppose. That is the chief drawback to this place As long as that land is shut up, so long will Kawhia be a rising township in the sense chat it has not risen, and be a rising township for 100 years.