NOTES BY THE WAY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4390, 11 April 1893, Page 2

NOTES BY THE WAY.

(By Our Special Correspondent),

It is now* some eight years since tbo Special Settlement Associations were first inaugurated in the Forty Mile Bush, with the result that thousands of acres of bush have been I felled, and many comfortable homes have sprung up where formerly only a few Maori clearings existed, Settlers with their families have left the crowded cities, and we find men of all trades,engineers, storemon, clerks, <fco, and men who havo spent the best part of their years at sea, have, axe in hand, hewn for themselves a home and independence where at first sight it seemed impossible for men—for the most part with only limited means at their command—to succeed. But it is in the bush settlements that yon meet the pluok and energy which is the backbone of the New Zealand settler. Take for instance the country around Eketahuna, the Farkville and Wellington Special Settlement Aeso-' oiations. They are among the first that started under the speoial conditions granted to them when Mr Ballance was Minister of Lands, Both of these blocks are on the west side of Eketahuna, and can now be aps proaohed by fairly good roads, which at the present time are being made suitable for wbeel traffic. The waut of roads and bridges has been a very great draw back to the settlers, most of whom are at present living on the back seotions, but there is plenty of' evidence that during the next twelve months there will be something like double the numhor of homesteads erected, The work of metalling these roads will be Bomewhat costly, but until it is done tbey are bound to be only fit for horse traffic in the winter months. .

j Leaving the township of Parkville, t and passing' Brigbt's sawmill, some capital grazing country is met with, i and on enquiry we find that the sot ! tiers aro extremely anxious for the 8 establishment of a dairy factory, cen- ' tally situated and having creameries at such places as would suit the convenience of the whole district. It is a evident, from the character of the 9 whole country now in grass, that a ' very large number of cows could be , carried, and the factory under proper ) management would be a profitable r concern, The settlers have made • several attempts, but up to the pre--1 sent the wantof capital and good road--3 ing have been the great drawbacks. Now, however, it is anticipated that j they will by combined effort be able .. to get up a co-operative association, 3 or induce some capitalist to erect a i factory and purchase their milk, r Following round by the central r road (which by the way joins on to '| the main road at Hefty's ford) you ,_ again meet the road at Newman, ex- [ cellcnt land,of which a very considerable portion is cleared, is met with, nice large flats and gently rolling , country, with abundance of grass, except in a few cases where bad burns „ have prevented proper seeding. Op- .. posite the township of Eketahuna, Mr Timmins has a large dairy, and is e milking twenty-three cows, which b number will bo doubled next year. He has a hand power separator, but ._ proposes putting in a larger one to 5| be driven by water power. The great c bulk of the sections in these blocks h are about 100 acres in extent. Messrs ,_ Priest and Timmins, however, have j upwards of 800 acres each. Of those s already settled on the land or builde ing wo fiud Messrs Hare, Moiris, e Preston, Farron, Edwards, Tyler, n Davenport, Witt, Roy, Ols'en, Broom, o" Crow, Burke and others, d _ On the main road to Pahiatua the 0 inorease of settlement is going steadily j on, and tho traffic on this road bids ;. fair to be very heavy, until the rail« 1 way line is opened.. This is a question jj that is asked you on every hand, but from all appearances, at present, the , year 1900 may see it opened to Wood- - ville, and it may not, There is no 0 doubt the Wairarapa North County 1 Council will have its work cut out to j keep its portion of the road from • Eketahuna to Tutaekara in good repair, for added to tho ordinary coaob and carrying traffio there will be four sawmills carting their timber over the greater portion of this road. Hawera Junction is becoiningquitoa township, with hotel, blacksmith, and store, etc. ( At last a school is to be permanently established, and the new building is nearly finished, and the only thing wanted is a teacher. This school will ' open with something like forty scho- ' law, which number must nearly ' double in a couple of years. ' From Hawera Junction, the road goes into the Hutt Special Settlement, 1 whore a large extent of bush has been felled, and shortly the land will be occupied. Close by are the new settlements, Waiwera and Kakareke, balloted for a short time ago. A large portion of this land is said to be of excellent quality. It fronts the Mani gatainoka river for some miles, and extends back towards the Mangahao. , The general character of tho land [ along the banks of the Mangatainoka i and Mangahao from this point is such that it will be hard to finditsequal for I grazing purposes, and there is no , reason why it should not be the pre- , mier dairy district of the Forty-Mile i Bush, in fact there is sufficient evidence that this will be so from the work done in their first season by the , cheese factories, situated at Manga- : tainoka and Ballance with the creamery at Makakahi, i Ballance, or the Master ton-Man- l gahao Special Settlement is another ' of the first established settlements, i and one of tho most progressive, even I with all the drawbacks against which < it has had to contend, for, to get to | market, there are two rivers to cross i and the fords are none of the best. It i is to be hoped that the Pahiatua > County Council will not leave the I Government any peace until they f haye handed over substantial sub- I sidies for this important work. Only 1 get a Mininter of the Crown stuck in t the Mangahao river, for an hour with 1 a fresh on, and tho money would be .\ forthcoming in quick time! a The road from Pahiatua through f Ballance and back via Goodwoo 's c Boad and the Mangatainoka township e will form one of the prettiest drives in r the province and will become popular - when better known. The settlers of v Ballance have bad a favourable year if t one may judge by the number of improvements tbat are to be seen on o tho holdings, and tbiß must be attri- n buted to the establishment of the v, dairy factory. Visiting tbe J the courteous manager, Mr Holstead d (formerly of the Wairarapa) explains s: tbe whole oi tbe working plant and b invites yon to sample his butter, tl which you find in various stages of w preparation; some just from tho ohuvn and other lots ready for pack- .. ingfor'the Home or Colonial markets, it Of the quality, it can safely be said ai that it will be difficult to equal it in fc any part of the world and if the same cl article is properly landed in the cl London market, there could not pi possibly be a wmplaint (gainst it,

A few figures supplied by Mr Holsteadmay beof interest. From the starting of the faotory in October last quantity of butter made is seventeen tons, The largest milk supply in one day reached 730 gallonß,andas the supply is now felling off, the quantity delivered on Good Friday morning was 487 gallons. In January the milk supplied amounted to 22,000 gallons and cheques wero paid on milk account equal to £3OO. The largest cheque being £26 for milk from about thirty cows. During last month the total milk supplied reached 17,000 gallons. Mr Holsfeaibfl. every confidence that next season Hre* supply will be doubled and arrangements must be made for enlarging this faotory.which was atGrstwa? onlyintended as a creamery, the cream to be sent to Mangatainoka, This, however did not answer, and the present building i'h too smallfor the work to be done, It is expected that a oreann ery in connection with.the Ballance factory will be built next season south of Sinclair's in the WoodvilleMangahao.