OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 235, 9 February 1911, Page 7

OUR STAPLE INDUSTRIES.

RURAL NEW ZEALAND UNDER REVIEW. No. 16. By R. J. EAMES. [All Rights Reserved.] AUCKLAND: A PROVINCE OF PROMISE THE UNTOUCHED CORE. Let us remember onee more that the Auckland land district, at its longest part, is 305 miles —a mile for every day of the year. There are miles of inferior country, but there are many more miles which, although once counted unprofitable, are yielding handsome returns. Near Rotorua a few thousand acres was not long ago disposed of in farm lots by lease at 14s per acre. This was cleared, but otherwise unimproved land, and the price equals £l4 per acre. A very few •years ago settlers would not have given a song for the soil. We have remarked upon the fertility of the south-west corner of the province, of the fine areas through the Waikato, down the Coromandel Peninsula, and along the coast of the Bay of Plenty. We have considered the almost amazing development which has taken place of late years, we have commented upon the conversion of bush areas and barren "wastes" into desirable holdings. Fringing the sea we find the most striking evidences of progress. At the hack of this coastal country there are easy hill, bush and scrub lands well under sheep and dry cattle, hut inside that circle again, covering hundreds of thousands of acres, is the most remarkable part of the province—the great untouched core. A journey through it throws into nothingness the sense of advancement and progress, which was gained by a consideration of the territories which have been reduced by labor to that fruitful condition in ■which they may minister to the needs of man. An acquaintance with the core of the North Island will renew confidence in the destiny of the district. It cries aloud to the surrounding cultivation that whilst so much has been accomplished so little has been done. All these lands—and particularly the Maori lands—ought to be unlocked, and unlocked promptly. Our flocks and our herds—to say nothing of our population—may be increased, beyond all "present imagination. Only let the lands be unlocked. A great responsibility rests upon the holders of the keys. After traversing .practically the whole of the Auckland province, the predominant impression is not of its progress hut of its comparative emptiness, of its unused capacity, and of the realisation of the existence of an immense core, practically untouched. THE "DARK AND ROADLESS NORTH."

The roadless "North" has lieen described as "dark," but as a matter of fact it is one of the brightest and sunniest parts of New Zealand. Preconceived prejudices against this terra incognita, too, are rapidly being dispelled. Possibly the greatest impediment to the speedy progress of the "dark" area is that strip of country, 38 miles long, by tbe width of the island, between Auckland and Hclcnsville; plus the river of "pea-soup"—the valuable Wairoa, leading to Dargavillc. Those obstacles are the despair of Auckland land agents, who will tell you of client after client who, after passing through that territory of pug, covered with stunted ti-tree, have "turned tail" at Helertsville, crying, "That's enough for me, thank you!" Others 'have persevered up the river, but the unreproductive appearance of the gum lands along the bank?, together with the look of the water in this great estuary, adds to the volume of disappointed searchers after soil. The writer took the road for it to Helensville, and after than run can quite understand the sense of destroyed ex- ' peetanoy which much oppress those who, searching, found not. But this country, which has yielded valuable gum, although no land for a poor man, has been proved to be good fruit-growing country. One fruit-culturalist of whom' the writer heard paid £l2 an acre for scrub land, planted an orchard, and did exceedingly well out of it. How the present-day legislation will affect land prices and prospects of this district remains to be seen. In the valley through which the railway runs in approaching Helensville there is a piece of very fertile country, declared by some people to be the "very best in New Zealand." That, of course, is, a pleasant hyperbole, but the butter-fat returns leave the mind in no doubt concerning the productivity of this particular soil. Sales recorded run to £32 per acre. The fertility of the Kaipara Flats is well known, but it is said that northwards of Raupo (which only requires two acres to the cow and has been sold up to £2O an acre), through the Wairau district, and in the Mangakahia Valley, is to be found about the best land in the "Dark North." From £7 an acre upwards is the price of "good" dairying land. Three sheep to the acre is not an uncommon carrying capacity. It is only this season in Taranaki, where dairying is so well established, that anything like adequate attention has been given to the growing of winter feed, so that it is not surprising to find in the "Bright North'' an almost entire neglect of root crops. Some of the farmers, it is said, have "never seen a mangel.'' The cattle simply starve along in the winter, but so suitable is the climate that they never *un down in condition, under this treatment, to the extent that they do in other parts of New Zealand. There are many old settlers who will not or cannot get out of the old-time rut and adopt up-to-date methods. Some have lived for twenty years in this districtso peculiarly adopted to fruit-growing—-and have not planted a single tree. From Whanffarei northwards there are patches of really good land. The great quantity of poor land has had the effect of badly disparaging the whole territory, and sweeping and mistaken condemnation has been the result. A Taranaki farmer, well known to the writer, made three tours of inspection through the unknown north. On the first visit the impression was wholly unfavorable; on the second that impression was rather changed; on the third trip he invested in a rather extensive farm by way of speculation. There is one crying need for the district—Boads! But that has been said so often that its reiteration appears idle. Next to roads there is needed capital and enterprise. If Nature is wisely assisted there will come a time when some journalist of the future will write in glowing terms of the fruit canneries, of the dairying and of the sheep and cattle runs, of the Orchard end of this Province of Promise.