PROGRESS IN SETTLEMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 535, 19 May 1933, Page 13

PROGRESS IN SETTLEMENT

IREMARKABLE CHANGES EFFECTED In the eourse of brief reference to land settlement in this part of the province, Mr. Thomas Jackson, Mayor Rotorua, der clares that there are many thousands of acres of Crown and Maori land awaiting development by men with small capitap He believes that no other district offers better chances of success.

I"N the year 1913 the foothills ivhich surround the Lake of 'Rotorua were dull and drab of appearance. The sombre hue of manuka merging into ebut slightly less sombre fern and lu and evoivned with the declicate, tfuneral tracery of the native bush. ;re and there, perhaps, an isolated tch of pasture land, pale and anae-ic-looking, spread tentative hands snpplication to the godess of hura progress. Here and there a few ^■staitable pioneer spirits were enf^Ravoiiring to deraonstrate that the ^Bffsed and rejected pumice lands I> capable of economic developt, Suffering untold hardship, prion and loss, handicapped hy injaate aceess and transportation Eiilties, discouraged by failures, ! still carried on. They still had h in their land and their district; r left no stone unturned to justify tfaith. Branded as deluded opists by even their own townsple, they still were prepared to to one heap of all their winnings,

and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss," arid by so doing blaze one more trail in the history of land settlement and development of the Dominion. The year 1933 sees a very different picture. The deep green of healthy pasture land has replaced the drab of bracken and manuka and has, in fact, assailed the bush-clad summits in many places. Closer settlement has lautomatically followed, with its small but comfortable homesteads, its cultivations, plantings of sheiter belts, sub-divisions of g'addocks, improved aceess roads and hiigh-grade dairy hei'cls. The extent of this growth may be ga,uged hy the fact that in the period under review the output of butter for the district has increased frcm 100 tons per annum to over 1200 toi.s per annum, whilst the production of wool and fat lambs has incre'asfed in like proportion. ■ Yet the possibilities of this wonderful district have as yet been barely touched. Many thousands of acres of Crown and Native-owned land suitable for close settlement are awaiting j the hand of the pioneer; and this de- c

spite of the fact that the Native and Lands Departments have done yeoman work in demonstrating the great possibilities of the pumice lands from an agricultural viewpoint. In addition to the Crown and Na-tive-owned land, there are also large areas of privately-owned land positively crying out for closer settlement and which would give immediate response to the intensive treatment which closer settlement makes possible. There is no district in New Zealand to-day containing such:, extensive aneas of land, within easy reach of large centres of population, so suitahle for close settlement — easilyworked land giving wonderful response to scientific treatment and of proven earning capacity equal to many higher-priced lands. There is no district which offers the same prospects, the same hope and promise, to the man of limited capital prepared to g'ive of the best that is in him of lahour and ingenuity in the honest endeavour to make a horne for his family and a place of joy and beauty >Ut of the tangled wilderness.