THE TAUPO TIMES

Taupo Times, Volume V, Issue 207, 20 January 1956, Page 4

THE TAUPO TIMES

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1956.

DEATH OF EARLE VAILE

Noted Pioneer Of Pumice Country Development The death occurred in a private hospital in Auckland on Wednesday night, January 11, of Mr Edward Earle Vaile in his 87th year. Widely known as he was to older residents, both pakeha and Maori, of the Taupo Country, Mr Vaile' s reputation as one of the earliest advocates of and pioneers in the development of pumice country was a national one. Mr Vaile, who was not married, is survived by a sister, Miss E. C. Vaile.

Mr Vaile was a son of Mr Samuel Vaile, one of Auckland's earliest businessmen. Born in London, he was b rough t to , New Zealand at an early age, and at 16 left the Auckland Grammar School after topping New Zealand in the matriculation and senior civil service examinations. In 1908 Mr Vaiile left his father's business and took over 53,300 acres of pumice country between Waiotapu and Taupo. The area was bounded on the west for 17 miles hy the Waikato River, on the north-east by the Torepatutahi Greek for 15 miles, on the east by Crown land, where the boundary line ran 22 miles with only one angle, and on the south-west the 10mile boundary included part of Tau hara Mountain and ended up by the stream, the Parariki, draining Lake

Rotokawa. The land was the unsold residue of a 100,000 acres which had been owned by the late Mr Smellie Grahame, and Mr Vaile had been engaged by the trustees of the estate, in London, to advise them as to whether they should accept a low offer they had received for it. Mr Vaile engaged the late Mr Joseph Crowther, of Taupo, to guide him over the country, and rode back and forth over it with him. As a result of his inspection he advised the trustees to reject the offer, and that was done. Beneficiaries in the estate were dissatisfied with this decision, taxation heing heavy and the cosit of fighting rahbits not inconsiderahle. Well-known valuers had reported adversely on the land, and the Lands and Survey Department and the Department of Agriculture had published reports almost equally condemnatory of the whole pumice area. To the criticism of his report, Mr Viaile replied that he would back his opinion by adding 20 per cent. to the offer made to the estate for the land, and itaking it himself. His offer was duly accepted and he thus became the owner of one of the largest freehold estates in New Zealand. To this he gave the name of Broadlands, the name by which the central por- ' tion of the area, now a prosperous dairying district, is known to-day, lying hetween Taupo and Reporoa. In the history of land development in New Zealand the name of Earle Vaile stands high as that of the first to demonstrate methodically' the potential value of the pumice covered areas of the centre of the North Island. He was in a real sense the fore-runner of the great State development scheines that are to-day changing the face of the Taupo Country. In 1935 Mr Vaile decided that he had won his battle against the fotrmer pumice wilderness and retired to Auckland, having sold portions of his holding, including the well-known area comprising the pine forest later planted and developed hy Afforestation Proprietary, Ltd., between Tauhara- Mountain and Lake Rotokawa. In 1939 he published a hook. "Pioneering the Pumice," describing his experiences, which has recently been re-issued under the title "Conquest of the Wilderness." Mr Vaile was a generous ptiblie benefactor, one of his gifts being a series of endowments to the Auckland War Memorial Museum valued

at £40,000. Other public gifts included 1000 aores, most of it firstclass grazing land, given to the Government for the settlement of unemployed during the depression; 700 acres for inclusion in the Centennial Memorial Park in the Waitakere! Ranges near Auckland ; and many thousands of books given to public, university and school libr airies. Earle Vaile was a man of keen intellect, a robust individualist with a strong belief in the virtues of hard work and personal initiative. During his years at Broadlands he was visited from time to time hy men in many walks of life, interested in his work of developing the pumice land. Among them were many leaddng figures in the political life of the country, men

of all shades of political opinion, who found in him not only a kindly host but one who, no matter how firmly iheld his own convictions might be, could respect the expression of another man's opinions. Earle Vaile was a man of friendly disposition, iliked and respected by pakeha and Maori, his keenness of mind lit by wit and humour. The last of his periodical visits to Broadlands and Taupo was made only a few weeks ago, when he made the rounds of a number of his old friends. It was fitting that he should thus, on what was destined to be his last earthly journey, have heen able to see again the broad acres of pumice country turned by his own faith and work into fine pasture, the nucleus of a new province in the making.