A TRIP THROUGH PONGAROA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10041, 15 July 1910, Page 6

A TRIP THROUGH PONGAROA.

LIFE iN THE BACKBLOCKS. Sir, —I would like to give, through your valuable paper, a few notes relating to my recent trip to Pongaroa. The main road from Pahiatua hi Pongaroa is fairly good. Alfredton and Weber Road is in a very bad state, and also all by-roads. Plenty of feed is to be seen everywhere. The settlers are losing a great number of hoggets. I think the country is too wet for Lincoln sheep, but the grown stock looks very good. Mr A. Tinsley and myself had a splendid time during our stay in there. The settlers could not do enough for us, It did not matter whether we were strangers or not, we were made welcome. They were only too pleased to put us up, just to hear the news from the outside. They seem to have a | good bush telegraph system in there, | for wherever we stayed all the squatters on that road got to know of it that night, and came to the house, to hear the news. That which interests them most is the freezing works and the light line railway. I think the Government is treating those settlers unjustly by not rushing that proposed light line through in the quickest possible time. The settlers are not only hampered with bad roads, but have not got a m;-rket for anything out their wool and fat stock If they have a bit of butter and a few dozen eggs to sell they cannot get a payable price for them, after having packed them twelve or fourteen miles. The small sections of iO to 200 aciCj have proved a' failure. Settlers find that after spending the best part of their lives cleari... and grassing these small place;, mat there is only a bare existence. The only hope of their bettering themselves is by buying one another out, and so doubling their holdings, otherwise'their families have to turn out to work for wages at a very young age. They have tried dairying, but the country is not suitable, it being too steep and broken for cows. There is a saying in there, that a man has to look up his chimney to see if his lows are coming home, at;d it is not much overdrawn. Outsioe of a football match oradancethty know but little enjoyment. A play is unknown, nor have they any chance to get outside to see one during winter. The man who is fortunate enough to have a piano in there turns his house into a kind of music hall, and the people coma for miles around to hear it. I heard of one man havirg a Gsm phonograph and a few records travelling round the country on horseback, giving entertainments to his friends. There is a great opportunity for any young lady desirous of getting a good husband, if they would only go to Pongaroa for a summer vacation. I am sure there is a score of bachelors with good homes and farms going to waste for the wants of a good wife. People here think that because they have got a daily mail servica in there in the summer, and the telephone, ! that they are all right, but it is I only those few living on the main i road that get the benefit of it. Those on the by-roads have to ride from five to twenty miles to get their mails. They do not live so cheaply as one might think, when it costs them anywhere from £3 to £5 per ton to get their stores in. The outlook for prospecting is not very good, as the formation is limestone or papa. I did not sea a single bit of quartz through the whole country. I heard of something which was found in one of the creeks, which they said would cut glass, and was very small and bright, but I could not find the man who found it. More may be heard of this later on, and also of another metal of which I am not at liberty to say anything at pressnt. I also had a look at the country where .they propose to bore for !coal in Eketahuna, and I am sure they will find coal there, but the formation is too new, and the coal is not likely to be of a very good quality. In conclusion I hope that when, if ever, the Government put a railway in through Pongaroa they will also erect a monument in honour of those settleis who carved that country into shape on a miserable existence. —I am, etc., R. KIBBLEWHITE, Fernndge.