The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1886. NEW SETTLEMENTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2275, 20 April 1886, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 1886. NEW SETTLEMENTS.

At the present time the only corsideiablo tract of new country in New Zealand which is available for profitable settlement by conversion into small farms lies within the area of the Forty Mile Bush. This fact is of great importance to the Wairarapa, because it means that the northern part of this district is to be the scene of extensive colonising operations. The Forty Mile Jusb has at last come to the front as the best field for new settlement within the colony, and consequently as the one which must now be developed by the Government, It possesses now a colonial importance, in which it has no rival throughout the length and breadth of Now Zealand. The only other country which at all equals it in fertility of soil is said to be a block of 400,000 acres in Southland. :• This block, however, is situated at the; extreme, end--of the Middle Island in a rigorous and nngenial climate where the corn cannot be gathered in before the month of April,, and where settlers are disheartened and so discouraged that had they the means to change their quarters they would probably take flight to a more genial climate and give up the homesteads which they have already formed. The prospect of establishing a new settlement in Southland is a very dreary one, and practically the FortyMile Bush offers the only field in which the Government cau carry on land settlement operations on any scale. We may, therefore, shortly expect to see the colony vigorously pushing forward settlement in this district by surveys, road construction, and sales of laud. The continuation.of the railway may now be regarded as almost a certainty, and at no distant date we may anticipate that the development of the Bush district will stimulate trade in this district and remove the depression which is now more or less experienced.