Land Settlement and Progress.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 1, Issue 57, 12 August 1890, Page 3

Land Settlement and Progress.

A travelling correspondent of the New Zealand Times, in the course of an interesting letter upon the west coast townships between Wanganui and New Plymouth, thus refers to Stratford: —“ Four miles from Ngaire we come to Stratford. Unlike Hawera, where the bulk of the land is held by a few capitalists, who employ a boy or two to occasionally ride round the run* to give an eye to the cattle and sheep, the land for a large radius around Stratford is all cut up into small farms, and in a very few instances does an occupier hold over 3UO acres, the majority having from 50 to 200 acres. The result of this is that there is already a very large population in the district, ant) anyone riding up the back roads would he surprised at the number of farmhouses to be seen where one would scarcely expect to find any occupation at ail. When Mr Newton King first started his auction sales of cattle in Stratford some years back, there would frequently be only two or three old cows offered for sale, and if the auctioneer succeeded in making a commission of 8s or 4s, he considered it a good day’s work; but now, although there are two auctioneers in the place, it is not an unusual thing to see from 800 to 1,000 head yarded, and for all of them to be sold, with scarcely an exception. This speaks volnmes for the progress the district has already made.”