The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1922. TARANAKI’S BACKBLOCKS.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 March 1922, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1922. TARANAKI’S BACKBLOCKS.

The recent visit of members of the Taranaki Chamber of Commerce to the baekbloeks of the province should do a great deal of good. In the first place it has opened the eyes of those who had not previously been there to the extent and fertility of Taranaki’s back country and the immense possibilities which lay before it. The visit has also brought home to the members the disabilities under which the backbloekers have suffered in carving homes for themselves literally out of the bush, and the heroism with which they, and particularly the women folk, have faced their hardships. No spoken or written words can portray what, life in the .backblocks really is. No one in the towns can have any conception of it; the life has to be seen at short range to be properly appreciated. And when it is, one is moved to admiration of the big-hearted men and women who have literally taken their lives in their hands in order to win for themselves a competence, to become possessors cf their “own section.” The story of the .settlement of our back country is not a creditable one to our legislators. Far from it. These hardy settlers were lured into the bush with promises of road and rail communication within a year or two. How those promises have been honored, or dishonored, is proved by the fact that the railway is only now as far as Tahora at the one end and a mile off Matiere at the other. No roads have been metalled, with the exception of a mile or two now being done by the Ohura County Council. The settlers have been largely left to their own resources by neglectful and indifferent Government's. Considering settlers’ great handicaps, it is little short of amazing what has been achieved in the course of the past 19 ye.ars, or really 14 years, for five .years was taken up by the war. Indeed, there can hardly be another district in the Dominion which sent a bigger proportion of its manhood to the war. This, however, is not surprising, for the very qualities that impelled them to tackle such country and face a life full of danger and hardship were those that moved them to rush to the colors at the first alarm of war and participate in the major struggle. Much of the land has already been brought into production. Where heavy bush existed but a few years ago, one now sees smiling valleys the prolific grass in /which is sustaining herds of fine conditioned milch cows, whilst the well-grassed hills make ideal sheep country. The amenities of life are not neglected either, for every district bus its hall, as well as its school, and well kept flower gardens about many of the homes betoken the faet that pride in home is as strong in the baekbloeks as it is in the towns. The back country is truly a great asset to the province, as well as to the Dominion, and it is a pity that it has been neglected for so long by the powers that be in the vital matter of communications. Rome became the greatest nation in the world because it understood the value of permanent highways, and no new country, especially one subject to regular rainfall as is New Zealand, can develop properly without good roads or railroads. The Ohura is cut effectually off from Taranaki for the greater part of the year by the stretch of mud in the Tangarakau Gorge. It is only 16 miles in extent, but it would be the same if it were only six miles, because it becomes impassable after heavy rainfall. Northward the rails are creeping slowly towards Matiere, and on it the hopes of the district are centred. The settlers have waited twenty long years for this railway, which means everything to them. Those living away from the line will still have to put up with mud roads, but the coming of the railway to the centre of the district brings the day nearer when metal will be available for their side roads, and then the settlers’ whole outlook on life will be changed. The railway is to be continued to the Ohura township, about ten miles further in, and then work is to be discontinued in pursuance of the Ministerial policy to concentrate upon what is regarded as more important railway works. To class this line as secondarv to the North Auckland and Waihi-East Coast lines has always appeared to us to be absurd, and on visiting the back country again and seeing its wonderful possibilities that opinion is strengthened. There is really

110 comparison between this line and the other two. The Ohura district is entirely dependent upon the railway for an outlet; the other districts are at present well served by innumerable waterways, etc. The completion of the Stratford line will add considerably to the productivity of the country; the others will not increase it one iota. The one will become payable from the first day it is opened. The worst paying lines in New Zealand to-day, on the other hand, are the North Auckland ones; so much so, that most of the services there are being curtailed or stopped altogether. The most closely settled and productive parts of the East Coast are already served by railway, namely the Rangitaiki-’Wha-katane districts, and the further the line is pushed up the Waiinana country the less profitable it will become. These facts, which cannot be disputed, prove that in stopping operations at the Tahora end of the railway the Government are committing a very great error of judgment, and we hope all the pressure possible will be brought to bear upon the Prime Minister and the Minister for Public Works to do the right thing by the settlers of Taranaki’s hinterland and the country as a whole. Another work of equal urgency is the metalling of the road from Tahora to Tatu, enabling the settlers to connect with the railway at the southern end, and send their stock through to the New Plymouth harbor, their natural outlet. The work is neither a difficult nor expensive one, and, until the railheads are linked up, will prove profitable to the railways. The Government cannot surely deny this line and potentially rich district both rail and road communication, and we trust energetic efforts will be taken by all interested to press these matters upon the attention of Ministers.