THE PUTARURU PRESS. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1929. THE WEALTH IN PUMICE.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 276, 21 February 1929, Page 4

THE PUTARURU PRESS.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1929. THE WEALTH IN PUMICE.

'Phone 28 - - P.O. Box 44 Office - Oxford Place

“IF we could only get the eighty members of Parliament to come here and see what has been done there would be ho doubts as to the value of pumice soil," remarked the Minister of Justice, while inspecting a certain area recently in company with the member for the district. A similar judgment, in different language, has recently been given by a Parliamentary party after a tour of the Putaruru district. In the words of the member for Waikato, pumice country is the “ cheapest and most easily worked land yet remaining for settlement,” and it gives wonderful results when properly handled. Now, all this speaks well for the land, and for those who have spent time and trouble in getting members to the districts referred to, so that they might be convinced, but what does it say for the Departments of Lands and Agriculture and for members of Parliament. The thought which we wish to convey is this: if the Departments referred to were properly organised and functioning as they should do, would not land which is so easily and cheaply worked, and which gives such handsome returns, be better and more favourably known than it is! In other words, it has been left to the

individual to pioneer and discover what should have been done and found out by Departments of State. Again it says little for the constructive imagination and guiding hand of past Ministers of State, that their departmental officers should be so lacking in initiative that the forcing on the attention of the public of the greatest area of potential farming country yet left in New Zealand should be left for public-spirited men outside of Parliament to perform. Nor is the indictment of both yet complete, for not only have Departments of State failed in bringing to

notice the vast latent wealth in pumice areas, but they have not even kept abreast of the times as their records show. To some departments pumice country is apparently anathema maranatha, for instances are on record of recent date which clearly show that such country is still regarded in anything but the light in which it should be.

The truth is, as the member for Waikato has stated,-that 1 the pumice areas are. the only large tracts of land suitable for settlement left .in the Dominion. Such being the case, it is high time, in view of the country’s economic condition, that a sound yet comprehensive effort was made to utilise 'their vast latent possibilities. In Putaruru an effort has been made to point the way, and though manypeople, in other districts, who should know better, still scoff at the idea, there are facts which cannot be gainsaid. The enquiry asked for will bring these to light in an authoritative manner, and if the present Government. is sincere in its declaration to closely settle all possible unimproved land contiguous to established means of communication, as we think it is, there is r.o reason why the Putaruru district should not be made a comprehensive experimental area for the millions of acres of pumice country extending between Putaruru, Rotorua and Taupo.