OUR DISTRICT

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43320, 2 May 1908, Page 3

OUR DISTRICT

fmsm - V . y n' '.‘PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE. •' (Written specially for the Te Aroha H --f N,ws - ) ' • . [By A, B.—Copyright.] , When one looks back, upon .= the history of our pioneers and the life ; they had 'to face in the unrbaded, : Unbridged, tin peopled wilderness, and perhaps only then; one begins to realize! the value of the work they did. v;ln those times the settlers

, had.to take contracts for draining the andj. making the roads, in <sfrde£ to obtain capital to pay off the - deferred payments on their small holdings, and improve their land. : the drays loaded with, timber for building, or piles for, erecting bridges, often got bogged ; f rs°w, by a moderate rating, the goading is provided for, though of , course all healthy minded settlers hold the theory of the im provability of the roads. Mr Gavin, the rev Spected and enterprising Chairman of the Piako County Council, pro* ■_ poses by a Government loan for 32 years, oi for the Waitoa ' Riding of the Piako County, and a loan of £1,500 for the Te Aroha Riding, to have the county efficiently “ bridged at a merdly nominal rath to the ratepayers. This would leave the ordinary rate free. for reading

purposes. ' At the .present stage in the country’s development the dairy industry, writh its numerous bases of operation, is keeping the small holder in direct touch with the immense markets at the Antipodes, so that instead of a small holder, having to spend a great portion of his time in working away from his own property in order to obtain the wherewithal to work and stock his own farm, he is able to de- ' velop his own holding at a distinct profit. He has his income regularlyfrom the Creamery and knows where ! he stands, At the present time the large companies are payihg nd per pound for butter fat, and the supplier gete back his skim milk for pig Even the flax industry which, owing to, the recent disturbance of the American money market and from other causes has suffered tethp9rarily, is already beginning to right itself. '• ; With regard to the gold-bearing charter of the mountain there is no dAHnEat with less extravagant expenmehtalizing and more thrifty '§ cbmmbnsense methods the gold which lies embosomed there will be forth- ' coming. The boom that this would , give the district would extend to the whole of the Dominion, so that instead of being a thriving dairying / and pastoral centre, and a favourite : 1 tourist resort, Te Aroha would be7. come a town of world renown.

, \Viththe facilities for water transfer which the Waihou affords, Te Aroha has the: invaluable factor of competition to keep dewn the railway fares. Thus she is the centre of distribution’ even for settlements :!, nearer to Auckland, it being cheaper; to have one’s goods consigned by rail, to Te Aroha, whence the settlers nearer to Auckland can fetch them back and pay a lower railway fee than if thpy deposited at their own station. As to the • facilities for tourist and goods traffic

I*- even at the present ,time there are * two trains right through to Auckland, i; daily, mid! one from Auckland, ; iwhfle;there )are three ‘deliveries of ( letters per day. Naturally that' % portion of the line between the Coaling and the mining districts is one of the very best paying railways in; Dominion. Indeed it is ex- - tremely difficult to keep up with this portion of the traffic the demand for coal being so heavy. The consumption .of the Waihi Company ; alone amounts to thirty tons -.v i ; of:''.-co4l i'pier : day. This of course means that the trains are obliged to run at night to overtake the demand. , As to the facilities for promoting ; ; manufactures we need only remind Arohite of the vast reserve.

. of hydraulic power running to waste in the mountain. All that this needs ■*. is conserving and distributing. By ..this process, it will be transmitted .into an energy'which will drive his ' machinery and grind his mills, and by a, reflex economy augument the V revenue of the Borough. The assets that the town possesses in the Hot Springs is in itself, and considered apart from all the other resources of the town and district, a •: thing any district might justly value. All that the springs need to extend . their popularity is to be more widely known. For while Te Aroha does not* seek to enter into competition with Rotorua as a world’s wonder, yv she does and can offer a successful |[> rivalry as a restful and less expensive - retreat. She possess a natural beauty; which Rotorua in her unadorned State could never have presented. The loveliness of the tuihaunted glens of the mountain have - I rightly secured for it the mellifluous , name of Te Aroha (The Love), c The pellucid baths with their moderate charge, and the healing founts, with their priceless, yet unpriced draughts of mineral waters, are within the reach of all who are glad to leave the city for a few weeks m the jrear and live the “ simple - life.” The houses of accommodation are conspicuously reasonable in their !ft charge, and there is a sense of homelike hospitality about the thrifty k'y unostentatious town which is the very, ideal of holiday happiness to the true Dominioner. Educationally she is able to show L that she realizes the value of the higher branches by the transmutation of, her district school into a District High School, with a teacher Well to instruct the advanced pupils. Already pupils are being

prepared for their matriculation and civil;service examinations. V " So that in a brief outline it is easy toi sbofw that even at a normal rate of growth, all ;her natural • advantages, Te Aroha ought in a few years to be a town of greatly increased importance and extensively developed resources. ' But it will be our endeavour to show, in one or two of our ensuing articles, by what personal grit and patient endeavour on the part of the original settlers the district has been j brought into touch with the rapidly moving hand of modern development. We feel that before we go on to treat of present day facility and appliance if is not only just, but also profitable, for us to consider with, what heroic cheer the pioneers bowed their necks to the yoke of strenuous and unfacilitated toil in the days that are gone.