From Poverty to Plenty

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 246, 7 January 1928, Page 23

From Poverty to Plenty

TARANAKI'S DEVELOPMENT Home of the Dairyman From poverty to plenty—such a phrase adequately describes the progress made by the Taranaki district during the last quarter of a century. Hard put to eke out a bare existence in the early ’nineties. Taranaki farmers to-day have done much to make the district one of the world’s heaviest producing dairying areas. Even greater development awaits.

In the early ’nineties most Taranaki f .rmers were at a loss to make ends meet. Dairying had not come into its own and sheep and cattle raising was the principal industry. The heavy rainfall, now one of the district’s chief assets, proved a considerable handicap to profitable sheep-grazing, and there was little incentive for heavy expenditure in the breaking in of the country. Settlers in many parts were forced to collect the fungus growing on the rotting logs for sale to Chinese, so hard put were they to eke out a living. Then, somewhere about the start of the Seddon Ministry, dairying and closer settlement came to mend the district’s fortunes. One of the first big estates to be cut up by the Government was a block owned by C. Livingstone lying between Hawera and Alanaia. The purchase price, £22 an acre, caused criticism to be levelled at the Government from all sides. It was considered exorbitant and the department was inundated with offers to sell land at similar values. Better times had come to stay, however, and despite the fact that many other properties passed over to the Government, a healthy demand set in for land and generally there was a better tone in the market from then on. Credit for the introduction of dairying into Taranaki is given to a Chinese. He opened up a small factory and, with the increasing use of the separator, was soon followed by many others. To-day, Taranaki is literally a land of dairy factories. To the traveller there seems to be one stationed every few miles along the roads. One is almost forced to wonder whether greater economy could not be effected by a smaller number of factories. For the most part, however, they are efficiently operated and compare favourably with those to be found in any part of the wprld. .

With the coming of better times to the farmers the district has registered development on every hand. In the ’nineties many dairymen were forced to resort to sledges in order to get their milk to the factories. To-day, for hundreds of miles, tar-sealed roads stretch across the district. Flourishing towns and townsships have sprung up in the dairying territory, and few New Zealand centres have brighter prospects than New Plymouth, the district’s chief outlet. Enough, however, in these columns for the district’s rise to prosperity. Taranaki has a lesson for novitiate and struggling farmers in all parts of New Zealand. It provides a striking testimony of what can be done by top-dressing and close attention to herd improvement. Despite the fact that many of the dairymen have been financially embarrassed as a result of buying in at excessive values, the herds for the most part register an improvement in quality every year and even to-day Taranaki is drawn on from all parts of the North Island by dairymen wishing to establish sound-foundation, pro-fit-producing herds. Considerable attention is also paid to the manufacture of dairy products on scientific and economical lines and. in fact, if there is anything that will help to boost profits and increase production, then Taranaki dairymen are out to take advantage of it. With the extensive use of top-dressing manures, where necessary, pastures for the most part are kept in good heart. More could be done in the growing of supplementary fodder, but that, no doubt, will come. Taranaki, provided always that the initial price of the land allows a sufficient margin for profitable working, is indeed an ideal dairying province and. undoubtedly, with continued attention to better farming methods, has a considerably greater future,