The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1913. RESCUING WASTE LANDS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 215, 30 January 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 1913. RESCUING WASTE LANDS.

A lot of the land we used to regard as unlit, for agriculture of any kind is now eoming into profitable use. \ot many years ago no one would have thought, the seoria-eovered land in the Rotorua district would ever have been suitable for grazing or fanning of any description. The plough and fen disci's and man's industry, however, have produced a transformation in the appearance of the country that is little short of wonderful. The same with the swamp lands.

Some of the best land in Die Waikato and on Die east coast is that which has been reclaimed. Taranaki has not much swampy country, but what there is bus nearly all been "brought in," and is yielding big returns. The same transformation is going on in connection with the pumice lands of the interior of the North Island. These form a plateau of 5,000,000 acres, which one passes through on the way to Auckland by rail, it is estimated by a commissioner of the Auckland Herald, who has been -doing" the locality, that for an expenditure of £3 per acre this class of land—or at least four-fifths of it—can be broken in to productive use—that is, it can be made to carry grasses and clovers and root crops for such an expenditure, and that after such an expenditure it will feed stock of various kinds equal at least to one sheep to the acre, Lands in other parts of New Zealand, even when rough and unbroken and incapable of being much further improved, are valued at over .Co an acre when they will carry a sheep to an acre, so that it is safe to estimate that if the' pumice country is even roughly improved itwill be worth £20,000,1100. But, as the Herald's commissioner points out, the one-shecp-to-the-acre standard is only the lowest standard, for moderately improved farms on the pumice country have recently sold for £7. £8 and £lO per acre, and even at this price it is considered very cheap. One has to realise that ordinary farm land in every part of the Dominion, capable of general culture, and moderately well improved, is easily worth £2O an acre, whilst land worked up to a high productive stage is worth twice this sum, and even at £4O an acre pays a handsome profit when skilfully worked. The commissioner has seen farms on pumice lands in the interior which already carry stock and yield prddttce equal to £2O- - land elsewhere,-and .even these farms can have their productive powers very largely increased under more intensive cultivation. He rode and drove and walked over all classes of pumice country, and wherever a wild horse could climb he found clovers and trefoils, from which he argues that where such plants will establish themselves without the assistance of man, they will grow better when assisted by man. ' There is irrerfutable evidence that this is' 'the case, for 'in .scores of places wide apart and differently situated, where men are roughly cultivating this class of soil and sowing red clover on the newly-turned soil with a small amount of manure, there are crops so healthy and yigorous that they will compare very favorably with those grown on more expensive land elsewhere in Xew Zealand. The correspondent saw crops of swedes' and white turnips sown under the same rude conditions showing quite as much promise as those on newly-broken ground in the Waikato, while on.the more advanced pumice land farms all kinds of farm crops can be seen growing of a quality not easily surpassed anVwhere. All these things go to show that the pumice country, when well and carefully worked, can he made payably productive. The commissioner describes m detail the operations which have been successfully • carried out under conditions of the most unfavorable nature, anil concludes by expressing confidence that out of the mil-' Jions of acres in the pumice country there will yet be made thousands and thousands of new and prosperous farms.

THE LABOR PARTY. The Labor Party, at its conference in Wellington last week, passed a number of very futile and extravagant resolutions, and most of tliem will probably bear little fruit. The:most notable feature of the conference, however, was the intense hostility displayed towards the Massey Government; and it is very evident that the Reform Party will not, at the next general election, secure anything like the same measure of support from Labor that it did .at the second ballots in 1911. The two parties have, it would seem, lain down together in almost, lamb-like mien, and after earnestly discussing the position from every point of view affecting the workers, have determined to form one industrial organisation and one political organisation for the whole of their class. The unanimity of this decision, and the candour of the exchange of opinions preceding it, suggest that it will be a political force i hat will have to be reckoned with. The political organisation is not yet finally clothed with its "principles," and its "platform," for this work has been adjourned until next July, but such an impetus has been given to the unity ideal by the great gathering in Wellington last week, that whether for good or evil the Social Democratic Party must now be accepted as a live force of infinite possibilities in the public life of the Dominion. But , to achieve much, and to gain the coni fidenee of the country, they will have to revise their attitude upon a large nunii her of social and political questions, for at present they are disposed to regard themselves rather too much as the political huh of the universe.