AS OTHERS SEE US

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 260, 24 March 1911, Page 3

AS OTHERS SEE US

VISITOR'S CANDID CRITICISM. Sam. Blake writes to the Manawatu Standard as follows; we sometimes leuu irom your valuable papers wee bits of stray news from Taranaki. With your permission, I would ask you to insert my opinion of Taranaki, having seen a good deal of it whilst there a fortnight ago. Anyone, after leaving Aramoho station, who expects to see good laud will be disappointed indeed. It seems a combination of gullies, nothing much to attract one's attention until you are reaching Ilawera. Then one sees land which is grazing three and sometimes four cows to five acres (proportionately); then on to Te Koti, which was the finest land I saw on my tour. There I saw good store pigs on rape, fenced off like sheep. One farmer there, who has 66 acres, has already fattened over 100 pigs this year, netting him over £2OO. Can any of the farmers do so here? Then on we went to Eltham, the home of the camerated concrete buildings, beautiful chain wide asphalt streets, fine picture hall, shops, etc. One wonders i> a few years what can be done by some real energetic men and women. Then on again through Stratford. Well, I was not impressed greatly with its capabilities as a dairying centre. The land is very broken, arid what I saw you could not find live acres flat. Then on again to New Plymouth. Tlie farther from Stratford one got the worse the land seem to get—• all hillocks—hut nearing New Plymouth it gradually got better, only for that terrible ,pest, blackberry. There it seems at home: plough it, turn it' over, do .as one likes, still it grows, Now we come to Fitzroy and a sight of the briny ocean, which, to me, is music, indeed, having lived on the sea coast in Cousin Jack's land before coining to New Zealand. Now for New Plymouth —well, it is disappointing indeed. We,, in I'almcrston. are told you ought to see New Plymouth. The streets put one in a switch-back railway. The only thing to note, in my mind, to see there is the gardens. Yes, the gardens iie would compensate anyone. Whai <vith the beautiful lake, the native bush, the wellkept, clean and beautiful paths, it is indeed a Garden of Gardens. Now we have |seeti enough of New Plymouth. On our way back to Eltham, where 1 make my home for a few days,] not satisfied vet'as to the superiority of Taranaki lands over Manawatu, we start off on the Mountain road—and a j terribly bad road it is, too. One's ribs and hips are sore with the jolting nnd bumping along. Towards Te Roti, on towards Matapu, we are getting on to some real good country. • On to Kapuni, land not so fertile; seems light and strong. And still on to Auroa. Here we are in the heart of Taranaki cheese. I counted six large factories in lesser distance than four miles, and I say this,' that if the land were farmed there would be room for half as many more factories than are there now. At Auroa I stayed at Mr. H. Rawcliffe's. Although perfect strangers to me they made me feel more at home than in my own place. Here I was shown a milking machine at work. The contented and business-like meth'ods of Mr. RawclifTe and employees were indeed a life study. It was there I saw a little mite only five years old stripping cows. (Now, don't be hasty, pleafee). •She was not asked to do so, but delighted to assist as best she could with sonic pet cows. Mr. RawclifTe told me he has a 300-acre farm. He was then milking 10l> cows—cows of all breeds, but! he favors half-bred Ayrshires; more hardy than any other breed. He has some one and two-year-old Ayrshire heifers (pure-bred), with a pure-bred Ayrshire' bull, a grandson of Lord Onslow, and a better strain of milkers it is hard to find. Mr. Raweliffe will, lam sure; be competing with his cattle, and I wish him every success with them. Taking constitution as a base, combined with milking points, such cattle will be hard to dislodge. Mr. Raweliffe is supplying the Ivaupokonui Co-operative Dairy Factory Co., Ltd. The number of suppliers is 195; output'of cheese for season 19091910, 2228 tons; amount paid for milk f<?r December, 1910, £11,870 18s 4d; number of cows, This is one of the ■many dairying companies in Taranaki, and if the farms averaged, say, 50 acres, it would pay the farmer better than employing labor to work a larger quantity. There is one drawback—and, to my mind, it is a serious one, too, in Taranaki as' well as here in Manawatu—the scarcity of shelter trees. A man gets a few trees around <his house. The stock, by which he (the farmer) gets his living, takes Ilobson's choice —get what they can or do without. If I have not made myself clear oil any point I shall be pleased to do so if able. My idea in comparing notes is to induce those of us who are not in a position to pay for services we require to' help each other. Let us try to rival them, and by «o doing we each may learn a little from each other, to make life easier and brighter for all. [Evidently Sam. Blake was asleep a good deal of the time he was in Taranaki, for some of his observations are all askew.—Ed. News.]