WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH OUR PRODUCE?

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 44, 4 November 1867, Page 3

WHAT ARE WE TO DO WITH OUR PRODUCE?

Is a question, at present, pretty generally asked throughout this large and fertile valley. There are considerable accumulations of wheat, oats and butter in this district. So'mfich so, that in case of one product—oats, we heard a farmer state, very recently, that' the owners of Cobb’s line of coaches need not send tq Wellington for oats, for he would undertake to supply him with 4000 bushels at a short notice. That the produce of the Wairarapa is now' sufficient to feed its population, w’c have good reason to believe is correct; excepting, in me case of wheat, for flour is still scut iu-re from Wellington. This is an evil which requires a remedy. Why’does it exist? Is ,t for want of grinding power ? If so we call ti.e attention of men of business and means' to the lucrative investment to be derived from new Hour mills in convenient positions; but if the ground produces more wheat, ami mills more flour titan the district can consume. The question, what are we to do with our produce ? which causes so much anxiety to tea yeoman —the farmer of the Wairarapa,* will be recurring again and again, ami the stranger’s response to it will be, ‘‘send it to Wellington" but this wall not be ours for we know wvb that the cost Of carrage of one bushel of wheal from .Masterton to Wellington, when the price of wheat is low, is not far from the-amount charged for it in the valley. It is these high rates which constitute an embargo on oar traae in oats, in wheat, in potatoes and also well nigh renders our immense natural 'wealth ui toiara timber—unavailable. It is this state of tilings which damps the crop-prod at log energies of the settlers and contributes to stifle agricultural enterprise. Good macadamised roads we are forming and have formed'. They intersect our plains m many directions. Bus t’ne outlet to our vast, resources, is a very fair hill road over alow range of mountains. This mountain barrier is the impediment to our traffic. •

Ho'.v often hive ws called attention to this subject ? anil ho.v many times docs tue word tramway ri:« to the s.-ulers lips? but in vain, our principal representative appears to seek ms own'intercsts at theexp-mre, ol ours. and every day our chance of gutting it becomes lews. A tramway, or rather, a single line of roili (laid down on the common roads and taking L'apiam ioniith’s lino to avoid the Itimiuak'O and light locomotives —such as ate used in Lidia and on contractors rough lines in England - would suit one requirements audiiMvo i boundless source of wedtu to toe Wairarapa. How mucii lias been raid, written and promised on this subject, but how little baa been done. Yet all the while our moßey^rOdilcer—Had—is monthly getting less, and still we believe m the feasibility of the schema and wnli contiuuo to advocate it—for though a sum .mum greater than would have defrayed she coat of such undertaking lias been extracted Iroiirour’ laud fund yet aider all there slid remains, if justice is ever m bo done to tula District, sufficient public land', wherewith to guarantee t per coat interest or tint tv-pavnu n( oi'-auy sitmt that a company might expend hi the formation of a tramway from MuatertouiW’Weliingto.i. The first thing to be dime .is to sunny find estimate‘the -cost of such line. Why dura not the Provincial Government do it f ,