OUR LETTER BOX.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVI, Issue 85, 14 April 1904, Page 4

OUR LETTER BOX.

(We are at all times willing to publish correspondence on matters of public interest, but it must be distindly understood that we are not identified with the letters of our correspondents.—Ed. Daily News.) MAG XT FT CENT MOKATJ. (To the Editor.) Sir,—lt is earnestly to be hoped that the very interesting account of a trip to Mokau appearing in your columns lately will awaken us to the fact, that we sit here in Xew Plymouth with our hands piously folded, while our neighbouring towns ; of Auckiawd and Wam-janui are striving to open up communication with the great system of settlement now rapidly spreading over the lengjth and breadth of the King Countrysettlements which, in point of fact, are part of Taranaki and must eventually demand of us to open our roads and harbours to them, for the Wangianui Uiver, with its shoals and rapids, can never be more than a makeshift, and the distance and consequent heavy railway charges put Auckland out of the question. There can be no doubt whatever that the Mokau River is the natural highway to an enonnous area of the King Country extending through to the main trunk railway. This is a question that should have the attention of our Chamber of Commerce and indeed of all Taranaki settlers, for are we not really a handful of settlers living on the fringe, of a great wooded wilderness ? Having just returned from a trip up this very beautiful river, I am deeply impressed with its great possibilities. We should without del*a{y approach Mr Mackenzie, the chief of our Lands Department here, urging him to bring the Question of extending the navigable limit of the river before the Government, for easy communication with tjie coast is of the lirst importance to these inland settlers. The Scenery Preservation and Extension Society will find the tourist on the track of commerce. They will work together, for Mokau must soon become one of the most popular tourist resorts in New Zealand. You have written so well of the great Ireautv of the river that there is little left for me to say in that respect. only that it is a most curious and new experience to find oneself steaming up this fine river, penetrating 30 miles into tlve very heart of one of Xcw Zealand's grand forests. in an ocean going ship with the lift and roll of the deep sea still in one's legs.—Yours, etc., M. ERASER.