TARANAKI'S HINTERLAND.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 162, 15 December 1914, Page 6

TARANAKI'S HINTERLAND.

A VALUABLE BLOCK. Fire years ago the Tangitu block, situated eight miles from Waimiha, a small station on the Main Trunk lino, between Taumarunni and Te. Kuiti, was thrown open for selection. This block was cut up into aboue 101) farms of an avorage of about 200 acres, each .of which were available for selection by retired civil servants or landless married men. At that time, the. block was composed entirely of heavy bush, and many a hardship was endured by the pioneer settlers who took up their residence on the block of land. To get their goods in, meant packing for ten miles through the bush, only a track being provided. This, after a little traflic, became a veritable quagmire, horses having great difficulty of getting through, and a great number finding graves by the wayside. Many a man got off the track, and one was lost for three days in the bush in winter, and when found, was in an absolute state of collapse. During the five years gone by, twenty men and women were carried out for medical treatment, many of them dying before a doctor could be leached. The fee in advance for medical treatment in the Block was £25 for some years. Now it has been reduced to £B. THE ROADS. The main road to the block was started some years ago after much agitation by the settlers, and now has been comp'letd for a distance of eight miles at a cost of some £25,000, the metal on the end furthest from the railway costing for delivery £1 per yard. BETTER TIMES COMING. Now this valuable Block is fast assuming the appearance of settled land with a tri-weekly coach-service. Every section in the Block is occupied, most of the land being described by experts to be equal to the best Taranaki land. Many of the women who went on these sections have not been out since they went in more than four years ago. Who will say that those pi'oneers of New IMand arc not entitled to any unearned increment, if any such increment can be said to exist in connection . with farms taken up under these con- j ditions! When one sees young men limping slightly with rheumatism or some other complaint brought on by living in damp tents, or sees the self-sac-rificing lives lived by women who nobly have assisted in the greas prosperity of this country, one can but think that these people, who are the backbone of this Dominion aro entitled to nu.V all they can out of the land they have reclaimed from its virgin state. Who of .ail Socialists and leaseholders could with justice deny them the right to the freehold ? Who would object to any prosperity they may be allowed to enjoy in the autumn of their lives? No one who has seen what they have undergone, could with justice deny to any pione. j r the right to enjoy any future prosperity. ' What a comparison can be made with the conditions of to-day and the conditions of five years ago. Again, in anorivjr five years from to-day, if tfcest pioneers still hold their sections, what a difference will be found, but the latter will be more in a matter of worldly wealth for then this land should be worth £4O an acre. Many a farm in the Patea County has been disposed of for N;onsiderbaly more than £4O sn acre du 'ing the iast few years, and the land in this block in the hinterland is considcr.-d to be of equal quality. "DO UNTO OTHERS." What an object lesson to many towuipeople are the lives lived by the pioneers of this country. What a brotherly spirit of a true Socialistic form prevail* among these hardy men. Here men uvj with tho object of doing as they vrouid be done by. A backblocks man or woman thinks uoihing of doing a good turn for their neighbor, confident that if necessary, the neighbor would return, the good act fourfold. An instance occurred to a fi'iitor who recently visited the Block. Having neglected to writo stating that he was coming, lie mentioned this to a man who was out in a neighboring town for the day. "Ring up tho Post Office," said the set.l or. "Anyono will run down the hill, and tell your friend and he will meet you with a horse." But what wa» the surprise of the visitor when lie arrived at the block to find it was a matter of two miles over a muddy road "down the hill." This incident serves to show the spirit in which the baekblock uim and women endure their hardships, and how their conditions mountains are quickly reduced to molehills. Many instances could be mentioned of the manner in which men and women bravo the hardships of a baekblock life. Those men have thought little of canying a bag of flour or sugar over a muddy track through the bush for ten mi'.et. These women have had no time to tliink of the troubles that worry our women in the towns who think often that their lives ahs hard. It is the spirit thali has helped to carve out their homes in the backblocks that has made the Br.t'sh nation what it is to-day, and may we long see this spirit prevailing throughout the country, for while it-lasts, our count need sever . degeneration of our nation. There are, no doubt, many backbk'ck settlements on a par with this, and probbably, many where the quality of the land will not grant the compensation of the future that the Tangitu block v/'ll, and to all these settlers, the women especially, the country is under an o-.---.r-lastiug debt of gratitude.—Patea P"ess. 85*