BACKBLOCK SETTLERS.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXII, Issue 2793, 22 May 1911, Page 3

BACKBLOCK SETTLERS.

Writing under the title Bush Farming a correspondent of the Press says : Suppose two men take five hundred acres each. Let ten years elapse. One man had money enough to put down all his bush the first year, and has had nine years' takings off the place. The other man put down fifty acres the first year, and was six or seven years in getting all down. He has had the greatest difficulty to finance at all. He has been runningthe cheapest kind of stock. Which of these men has got the best returns ? Is it necessary to see his books ? No, bush does not iall like the walls, of Jericho. You may talk of axes and good right arms, you may throw in the left as well, but it boils down to money, and the more money you have to start with ttoei less it will cost you to get your bush down. And any man would be,better off on wages than at putting his own bush down, 1 save for one hard and solemn fact. No man on wages has ever lived as hard and as frugally as the bush settler simply has to. When it comes to humping all your stores in on your back, your tucker bill is not a heavy one, though you are cruelly pushed to meet it at all. And, anyhow, is money everything? You meet the bushman at the show, and you write of him as hearty and hale. Have you ever examined his hands ? Have you counted his scars ? Do you know how many of his limbs have been broken ? May I mention rheumatism ? Or heart strain ? Four pounds an acre ? Yes. but how many years of life ? " Good Lord, we ha' paid in full."