Developing Idle Lands

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 318, 31 March 1928, Page 25

Developing Idle Lands

Prisoners on Pumice Country WORTHWHILE STATE VENTURE CLOSE to the southern end of Lake Taupo on the banks of the Tongariro stream the Government is carrying out an interesting experiment. A band of good-conduct prisoners is being used in an attempt to bring into profitable occupation a block of 60,000 acres of waste pumice land.

CIX years ago the land was all covered In tern, tutu and manuka. To-da.y over 1,400 acres have been brought to a state of fertility sufficient to rear the primest lambs ever seen in the Westfield saleyards. The block is known officially as the Hautu Prison Development Farm, and the prisoners, (numbering aproximately 100 at the present time) are divided into two camps. The number of men has been increased as the work developed. The clearing of the land is all done by the prisoners, and, following an onslaught with slashers and grubbers, the rubbish is burnt off in the usual way. The farm teams are then put on and the land turned over and prepared for sowing. In the spring turnips are put. down with a mixture of rye grass and clover, but in autumn turnip seed is eliminated. This is only considered to be a temporary pasture to cover a four-year period. At the end of that time it is considered the ground will be fit to be laid down in permanent pastures. Surprising as it may seem on land that is frequently termed as “waste,” and is certainly known as "third class” the manuring to date has not been heavy—not so heavy, in fact, as that called for, on many Waikato farms. Two hundredweight of superphosphate is put down with seed and the land receives a top-dressing once a year with one hundredweight of super. On this land, as stated earlier in the article, were reared the primest lambs ever seen in the Westfleld sale-

yards. Fifty-one of the line brought* 44s a head —a Westfield price record for this class of stock. The lambs were Down-cross and finished up to a standard even beyond that of pet lambs seen in the saleyards from time to time. Their skins, too, clearly indicated that they had not come off pastures in poor heart. In addition to the lambs a consignment of 42 bullocks came forward to Westfield on Wednesday*. These also had been finished to perfection. A further indication of what the land can be made to do can be taken from the fact that up to 12 tons of potatoes to the acre are claimed to have been taken off it. The aim of the Government in developing the land is closer settlement, and, certainly, if the country can be profitably made to maintain its fertility the scheme should prove worthwhile. The land is mostly of a pumice nature and apparently, according to Mr. T. Banks, the farm superintendent, during a conversation with the writer this week, can be broken in with as much ease as that which has been successfully handled in many parts of the Waikato. If it can be maintained with only one hundredweight of super to the acre annually it will certainly be a better proposition than much of the land in profitable occupation in New Zealand to-day. To say.the least about it, the experiment is on the right lines, and the prisoners there are surely doing more good for themselves and the country than by breaking stones at Mount Eden.