THE KING COUNTRY

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 3, 25 March 1927, Page 6

THE KING COUNTRY

BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES ROOM FOR DEVELOPMENT (From Our Own Correspondent.) TE KUITI, To-day. When the Limited express steams ii)to the King Country carrying bundles of THE SUN it enters a country of boundless possibilities—a country which is hardly one per cent, developed, a country of rich valleys, of forest-clad hills. It runs through a string of townships which, though feeling the chill of general depression at the moment, are as sound as any others in the Dominion and whic.i will presently resume the wonderful march of progress that has characterised them tor the past decade, or even longer. The traveller from Te Kuiti (which is pleasantly set in a green basin of limestone country) sees on his southward course for 30 or 40 miles an unprepossessing stretch of poor-looking pumicy hills covered with tea-tree scrub. He would be mistaken, however, in judging of the whole of the King Country by what he sees. The x-ailway runs through the very worst of the land. If he left the railway line and penetrated either right or left into the forest country he would find much productive soil and many flourishing farms. The King Country, with the exception of the Te Kuiti district, is constructed largely of two materials — papa and pumice. The hills mostly consist of papa and many of the valleys are filled with pumice. The papa is simply sea mud condensed and elevated in geological periods into mountains. A Rain of Fire Pumice is volcanic dust blown out of the neighbouring volcanoes in a red-hot condition. The Maoris who, as is well-known, preserve traditions with extraordinary fidelity, have much to say about this fiery epoch, and talk about a seven years’ rain of fire. There must have been a very long-con-tinued period of the erupting to account for the accumulations. Settlers in the Taumarunui district who have taken up the tea-tree-covered land will show you charred stumps of totara trees, and you can walk through no pumice cutting without seeing charred logs embedded in it. The settlers will tell you, and the facts fully bear them out, that the hot pumice dust fell in interminable showers on an ancient totara forest and covered it. When the volcanoes ceased their action and everything cooled down the rains began to wash the pumice down from the higher ground filling up the valleys. In some places the mouths of these were blocked up and artificial lakes were formed. Then the streams began to cut their way through the masses of pumice and by constantly changing their course levelled out flat places. It is very obvious how this has occurred at Taumarunui. The two rivers which flow through its flat valley have changed their course as much as half-a-mile and have now reached the limit of the encircling hills. Main Industries

The hill river-flats are rich in silt and are very fertile and even the pumicy plains will produce splendid crops of turnips or clover. Another crop which has been tested with much success in the Taumarunui district is lucerne. The river fiats, provided they are not too close to the water-level, provide an ideal soil for it. There are three industries on which ■the King Country depends for its prosperity, viz., wool, dairying and sawmilling. Already there is a distinct upwards move in the first of these three, there is every hope for an early improvement in the second, and while the third is not likely to boom in the immediate future yet a slight modification of the building regulations would cause an immediate improvement in it also.

This is the country into which the Auckland SUN is now finding its way. May it be symbolical of the sun of prosperity once more shining within its borders.