THE NORTH AWAKE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 25 January 1917, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE NORTH AWAKE.

It is not too much to say that during the first month of this New Year public attention throughout the Dominion will be focussed on the Far North to a hitherto unprecedented extent. For many years a very large number of New Zealanders have been apt to think of "the North" in terms of Auckland City and its adjacent neighbourhood, while the large stretch of territory beyond has remained comparatively unknown and consequently neglected. The popular conception of the North of Auckland in the minds of those unfamiliar with the district is that of a more or less arid stretch of country, out of which gum diggers derive a precarious livelihood and in parts of which the land and climate are suitable for fruitgrowing. The existence of these damaging misconceptions has been attributed to a variety of causes, among them being persistent neglect by the Government, the improper diversion to other districts of locally-produced revenue which ought to have been expended on local development, and the apathy and lack of unity of the settlers themselves. Time after time in the years that have gone by the plaintive voice of the neglected North has been raised within the walls of Parliament; but it has lacked the backing of consolidated representation, and has been stifled by more insistent claimants. But, apparently, the time and opportunity have arrived for putting an end to this remarkable era of satgnation, and with the time and opportunity there lias also come the man with purpose strong enough and vision wide enough to redeem the North, and put it in the way of becoming the veritable land of milk and honey which Nature intended it to be. Colonel Allen Bell, the chairman of the North Auckland Executive and Development Board, is evidently a man of courageous enterprise, and it is largely due to his efforts as organiser of the Board, and of the important Parliamentary tour which is to be one of the board's first achievements, that the North is destined this month to be the best advertised portion of the Dominion. In order to dispel the erroneous impressions to which we have alluded, and to attract settlement to the district, Colonel Bell conceived that nothing better could be clone as an initial movement than to organise a comprehensive tour of the Northern Peninsula, the guests of the board to consist of Ministers of the Crown, Parliamentarians, newspaper representatives from all the principal papers of the Dominion, and the best brains to be found among the farming and mercantile community. By

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tins moans, lie argued, the eyes of the people, like the needle of the compass would bo directed towards the North, and publicity ai ,d interest attained which would be in striking contrast to the conditions obtaining during th(J pagt hun _ drod years. The tour has now been successfully organised, and the party, which will comprise approximately 130 invited guests, is to leave Auckland on the 16th inst., in 35 motors, and proceed up tinEast Coast, via Albany, Warkworth Mangawai, Waipu, Whangarei, Bay of Islands, Mangonui, Kaitaia, Awanui, and Ninety Mile Beach, to the Far North, returning to Auckland by the West CoaSt,' via Herekino, Broadwood, Hokianga, Kaikohe, Dargaville,. Paparoa, Port Albert, and Helensville. By this means the guests must inevitably get a comprehensive grip of the potentialities of the territory in question, and should carry away with them an accurate idea of its requirements. These guests, eventually dispersing to all parts of the Dominion, will materially assist in removing wrong ideas and demonstrating that in the Northern Peninsula there was a large area of good land, not to be beaten in any part of the Dominion. In support of this contention, Colonel Bell recently informed an interviewer that in this territory of 3,800,000 acres there are, contrary to the prevalent belief in most parts of New Zealand, much first-class land—at least, he says, one and a quarter million acres, and probably another million acres that could be made highly profitable with scientific farming such as that adopted in the Waikato; whilst the very poorest clay and gum lands are now being made use of for fruit-growing, and will, he believes, become some of the most valuable country. These are facts obviously well worth demonstrating, and Colonel Bell is undoubtedly right when he says that no more opportune time could have been chosen for demonstrating them. From a social, economic, and patriotic point of view, the work of preparing for the settlement of our idle lands ranks in importance with the prosecution of the war, especially in view of the grave problems which will confront our statesmen —let us hopg in the near future—when the time comes for welcoming the armies back to civil life. We feel sure that the people of this and other parts of the Dominion will applaud the spirit of progress and enterprise in which their fellow-colonists of the North are seeking to come legitimately into their own, and will wish them well in tl»««r great endeavour.