NOTES ON THE NORTHERN WAIROA

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10583, 14 March 1912, Page 6

NOTES ON THE NORTHERN WAIROA

(Hv -a -.Mastorton Visitor.)

Though many people are aware that the country .North of Auckland is famous for its extensive kauri forests, and its once considerable, but now rapidly shrinking gum industry, few holiday makers from other parts of ■tin? Dominion, until recent years, sought- to travel much further northward than Waiteiuata Harbour. But latterly, land agents, by means of .their attractive accounts of the agricultural and pastoral potentialities of the North, have impelled a fair stream of visitors, other than tourists, towards the !iltle-known-of country lying beyond the Northern capital. J'u,<t l now, every clay boats from Auckland to Whangarei, and from •Helen sville to Dargaville, are conveying an unusual number of people, who, with a view to genuine settlement or pure .'peculation, are investigating for themselves the features of a- country fascinatingly described in attractive newspaper advertisements. Much attention is being bestowed at the present time upon the Northern •Wairoa, because of the large blocks of country now being thrown open by private enterprise for closer settlement purposes. ■A visitor for the first time to this district is greatly impressed "by the magnificent waterway which stretches from Kaipara Harbour for nearly a hundred miles inland! He is naturally much surprised to 'find, after sailing up fifty miles of the river, that it is still from a half to three-quarters of a mile wide, with a varying depth of from twenty to fifty feet. A stream, so wide and deep, through a country of no considerable extent, would puzzle liim did he not discover that the stream in question was a tidal one, and that even in Dargaville, fiftv miles from its mouth, the tides rose and fell from ten to fourteen feet. . tin the development of the timber trade this fine stream has been an imI portant factor. For eighty miles it is " navigable for fair-sized craft. At Dargaviile boats of two thousand tons have taken away as much as a million and a half feet of timber in a single cargo. Though many tens of millions of feet of timber are yearly brought down the river, this industry for which the Northern Wairoa was once j pre-eminently distinguished, is showing evidence that it is now within a measurable ■ distance of extinction. iFiue forests- of kauri still exist, but, the numerous .mills during fifty or sixty years busy operations, have sadly depleted the once extensive areas, and he or she who would now view the kauri' in'its stately glory must travel far past Dargaviile up to the top reaches of the Wairoa. For gum, as well as for timber, was the Wairoa'once distinguished. But this urcduct is not nearly so plentiful, or of such good quality as it used to be. Once, five hundred men (mostly Austrians)) found remunerative occupation digging and spearing for gum in the Dargaville district; now. Tittle over a hundred men pursue this precarious business. With the near prospect of the end of the timber trade, and the collapse of the gum 1 industry, it was generally thought a few years ago that the future of the Wairoa was a dismal one. Exclusively' engaged in gum and timber, its inhabitants gave no thought to the agricultural possibilities of the extensive alluvial flats that lay on either side of the river. Not till a year or two ago, when some enterprising farmers from other parts of the Dominion proved to the people of the Wairoa that the fiats adjacent to the river 'were capable of raising fat 'stock, was the land considered of .much value. Perhaps the best tract of country in the Wairoa is that which is known as the Kau.no Flats. They may bo said to be fairly extensive, inasmuch as they comprise something like thirty-five thousand acres. The earlier settlers upon these flats did not regard their country as being peculiarly fertile, in the fact that it grew no grass, but later settlers reasoned that grass was absent because the seed was never sown, so they tilled the land, and to the surprise of their neighbours proved it capable of growing clover and maize not to be surpassed in any part of the Dominion. Hence, land in that country has recently experienced an extraordinary rise in value, conveniently situated farms now fetching from twenty to thirty pounds an acre, that were sold four or five years ago at from three to five pounds an acre. In all, the Wairoa flats- comprise l an area of something like 100,000 acres. Much hard work will have to be done before they are all drained and cultivated. _ When this is done, it will be safe to predict that the Northern Wairoa will bo as famous in the future for its dairying, as in the past it was for its timber industry. Already, dairy factories are springing into existence along the river banks, and barges sail far up and down tho river, collecting the cream cans, which are to be seen in large

numbers on all the many piers. Xowherp in New Zealand is land dealing on the part of wealthy individuals and syndicates u;oing on to such an extent as in the Northern Wairoa. Large tracts of' country have lately been secured by these people and p thrown open for settlement at prices j which are returning them enormous profits. One enterprising citizen of Dargavillo, who owns the local picture .show, and skating rink, has socured a block of SO,OOO acres of land at the back of the town. He does not understand any branch of • farming, and has not the least intention of doing anything witfi his huge block of ecu try, which is as yet a wilderness, beyond .selling it in blocks at a profit that would send a Jew into raptures. The hilly and undulating country at the back of the Wairoa flats, on the we:.tern side of [In 1 river, is extremely depressing in its poverty. Fern, about six inches in height, and ti-trce varying from a foot to two feet, prove by their appearance that their struggle for existence is not an easy one. The soil on which they exist, but do not thrive, is one in which a pure white sand perclominates. Yet, strange to say, this country, when properly tilled, can be made to grow fair crops of turnips, and the much-' talked-of paspalum will thrive upon it. The introduction of this famous Australian grass bids fair to give a pastoral value to the poor lands of the Far North, which they would never possess without it. Cattle do well upon it, though it is doubtful if they would touch it if English grasses were available. On the rich river flats the settlers regard it unfavourably. In i such places it grows extremely rank, and will extinguish all other plants, possibly of course excepting sweet briar and gorse. Like most other places in the Auckland Province, Wairoa is extremely illfavoured in the matter of roads. Metal is a very scarce commodity in the North. Though Dargaville has a population of 'thirteen hundred people, onlv one or two of its street., are metalled. Its requirements in this direction can only be .obtained from a rock quarry seme twenty miles down the river. ' Jf the Borough, lying on the banks of the Wairoa, cannot afJford to metal its roads, the position of settlers living out back can easily Jbe imagined. Though winter has not ' yet begun, complaint* of the state of the road may already be heard. In some places two horses are deemed necessary to take a trap with three tins of cream down to one of the river piers. In outlying places the lot of the small settler is not an 'enviable one when accident or" sickness suddenly afflicts him. Just a few days ago ■ the Auckland papers narrated some ': heartrending cases of suffering that recently befel some settlers in distant places where nursing and medical ! skill were unavailable. i But the hardships incidental to , roadless districts are not preventing j bold and hard settlers from pushing out to all- the remote corners of the ' new settlements in the North.. Signs of great progress during the last year [ or two are manifest all over the Auckland Province, making easily understood the reason why the northern '. capital is rapidly outstripping in its growth the other centres of the Do- ', minion.