CLOSER SETTLEMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 553, 4 January 1929, Page 1

CLOSER SETTLEMENT

LAND IN TE KUITI DISTRICT COUNTRY NEEDING DEVELOPMENT (From Our Own Correspondent) TE KUITI, To-day. The possibilities of closer settlement in the Rangitoto district, a large and fertile area lying to the east of Te Kuiti, have been recently occupying the attention of public men interested in intensive farming. Within ten miles of Te Kuiti there are four farms alone capable of settling some 40 families, and which, on a conservative basis, should carry 1,000 cows. At present this land is supporting less than a dozen people, and is nqw carying 100 cows. Under 50 per cent, of the land in the Rangitoto district has yet been worked, and what is in use is producing only' a quarter of what it is capable of, owing to the unsatisfactory tenures, , and the areas being too large for the present occupiers to handle. Proof of what the land will produce when properly treated is illustrated in the case of a dairy farmer who, last season, derived a gross return of £lO an acre, despite a bad season and a late start.

Another striking instance of what can be done is afforded in the case of a Kopaki settler, who took up an abandoned Crown section only two years ago. This farm had reverted to its. natural state of fern and scrub, yet to-day this man is milking 17 cows and has a large area broken in. In addition, the settler, who is a builder by trade, has erected a full set of useful farm buildings, including a neat fiveroomed house, complete with hot and cold water service, and this at a total cost of £‘soo—a figure at which he is quite prepared to erect similar sets of buildings for other settlers. * Mr. AY. J. Broadfoot, M.P. for Waitomo, when visiting this district recently, had these figures brought before him, and expressed surprise at the very reasonable cost for buildings on a 100acre farm, which was a clear refutation of the cry of excessive cost of land settlement. One of the objects of Mr. Broadfoot's visit to Rangitoto was to officially open the new tennis courts, which, have been constructed by the settlers of the district, a sure sign of progress.