The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1884. THE FORTY-MILE BUSH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1620, 27 February 1884, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1884. THE FORTY-MILE BUSH.

We referred in our issue of Monday last to' the letting of a tender for the Kopuaranga section of our local railway as a question of the first'; importance , to Wairarapa interests,' -The completion of this link will bring the iron horse almost to the gates of that "promised land" which the Wairarapa Small Farm Association so eagerly desired to possess a few years ago, From tho northern end of theKopuaranga contract to Eketahuna is only Bonio t halt dozen miles, and from Eketahuna the Forty-Mile Bush' paradiso may be said to stretch northward for some five-and-twenty miles. This qreat reach of country may be roughly outlined a3 a fertile plateau, containing at least a million acres of good land, It is true that in some parts of it there are undulating hills to vary the monotony of the countless miles of flat country, but these are not of a precipitous character, and bear, soil which vies in fertility with that of the rich vallies in their neighborhood, The possibilities of such a district aro immense when taken into conjunction with the fact that it will shortly be tapped by our' railway line, The million acres are now covered with bush, ibut when once the land is put into the market, it will be. sold, and when sold' it will be "cleared and grassed'asit will pay to clear it and grass it, It is only a question of time for this outlying district to support ten thousand families on ten thousand small farms—to'feed sheep 'and cattle five times as numerous as all the. flocks and herds now grazing in both Wairarapa counties. In the future, the line between Mauterton and Woodville

iii »st become tho best paying section of it, .iikl even within the next few years it will king a harvest ■to the Government, Every pound now spent on the Opaki and KopUaranga sections, will enable five or ;ten -pounds I .worth, of land to bo sold. Spending a hundred thousand pounds between Masterton and Woodville means bringing five hundred thousand pounds or possibly a. million into tho Land Fund. The extension'of the line North of Masterton isa matlerof colonialjinterest Though enterprising settlers like Mi' McCardle may be the. pioneers in peopling this great territory of Wairarapa: North this district cannot supply the men or means to develop such a vast estate, It is known to , anxious inquirers after good land in all parts of the colony, and when oncelarge slices of it are put in the market buyers will flock from all parts of the colony and obtain the lion's share of the million aires.