The Waikato Times THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1161, 4 December 1879, Page 2

The Waikato Times

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1879.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. Here shall the Press the People’s right maintain, , Unawed by influence and unbribed by gain.

If Messrs. Grant and Foster, the representatives of the Lincolnshire Tenant Farmers' Association left England for New Zealand by the Norfolk, on the 28th ; of October last, another month j|t; farthest will see them in "Auckland,, ahd it behoves our local authorities in Waikato to give them> a suitable and cordial welcome. The Farmers' Club have alrsady moved ' in the matter, and have appointed a committee to meet them, to enter* tain them with a dinner, or in any other way they may think fit, and show them round the district. The Cambridge Farmers' Club has set an .example which will no doubt be followed in other parts of the district, and notably we would suggest to the Mayot and Couucil of Hamilton that they, aa the leaaiog public body in the district, should also take the matter in hand and make preparations for the reception of these gentlemen on their arrival in Messrs Grant and Foster represent a very influential and im-

' portant body of intending emigrants from the Mother Country, men representing capital, experience, and labour, and it is inost desirable that in visitiner this part of the colony they should have an opportunity of seeing and judging for themselves the facilities and opportunities for settlement which exist amongst us. Nor will they have better opportunity in the Waikato of seeing so large or attractive a field for settlement as around Hamilton. At Cambridge they may see what settlement and farming will ultimately lead thera to, ?nd a sight of the cultivated farms and homesteads of our well-to-do Cambridge settlers will afford perhaps the very best incentive to settlement in this part of New Zealand that could be afforded them ; but it is stretching away from Hamilton eastward for miles upon miles that the country, which, as a field for settlement, will have the greatest attraction is to be found. Lincolinshire farmers know the value of swamp and fen land, and a visit to some of the improved swamp lands outside East Hamilton, and on towards the Piako, not omitting of coarse the thousands of a'U'es reclaimed by the Swamp Company, will be full of interest to them. They will see before them largo tracts of swamp lands, all as capable of reclamation as those before them green with pasture rfnd covered with herds of tat sleek cattle, and they will'find upon investigation that" the cost of reclaiming such land' is not greater than, if as great as that of breaking into cultivation the dry'open lands of the district, .while* they come earlier into production. We have a notable instance of this in the farm lately entered upon by Mr James Runciman in the Kirikiriroa district, which rans out to and abuts on the Piako swamp Company's land. Though but occupied little more than a, year both autumn and spring sown clovers and grasses are growing most luxuriantly. Such crops—oats and potatoes—as are planted look remarkably well, and everything has an appearance of luxuriant growth. A. good burn was got on the drained swamp last | Feburary, and ~ the grass has taken well, and next year will I be a mass of feed, as in the case of ' the* Swamp Company's land beyond. It is there, however, that our Lincolnshire friends will find what will delight them to see so far from their English home, and that is a reduplication of the rich bottom lands of Lincolnshire in this far away part of the world. A,visit to . the Eureka Station will show them [ wold and fen mixed, and both J teeming with fertility. They may ride over hundceds-—nay,' thousands of acres where two or three years—in some instances, indeed, little more than one year ago a man would have sunk to- the knees at every step, and often to the waist, and now they may ride across the same land firm and compact, and growing clover and ryegrass, to the horses knees. Of course where labour is both scarce and dear grass and cattle are the use to which such lands are put, but there could be none finer for growing all kinds of crops than these reclaimed swamp lands, and as fine crops of flax and linseed could be raised on them as in the richest part of Lincolnshire. Indeed there is a remarkable similarity in some' respects., Any Lincolinshire man knows the value attached to the wharp lands along tho Trent in the north-western part of tho county, that the wharp' is cut and dug out and laid upon the land like dung or lime. In many parts of the swamp lands in East Hamilton the soil thrown out of the drains which cuts like new cheese, very much resembles the wharp in its appearance, and it is a noticeable fact that along the sides of the ridges formed by the out-put from the drains where the weather has decomposed and disintegrated this sub-soil, and it has . mixed with tho surface soil adjoining, the grass grows rank and coarse, as though upon the edge of a dunghill. The truth is that the swamps, if they cost even twice the amount lo bring into cultivation that the open | land, did, would be of far greater value, for their fertility is not only | great but enduring. But, as we have said, when reclaimed in large blocks of, say two, three, or four hundred sections, the cost is not so great as supposed, for. when the drains are cat and the water cleared off, a fire is run over the ground, which burns in for perhaps a foot or more, and.the grass seed is sown upon the ashes, sometimes with, and sometimes without rape, the latter being harvested for seed. There is now within six miles of Hamilton borough a field of six hundred acres of rape, nearly ripe, the like of which was, perhaps, never before seen in New Zealand, and sown in the manner above described. Sometimes the burn is not so good, or the grass does not take so well as desired, but even then a fresh burn when the rape is har- ' vested can be got, and the land be'resown without further expense than | the cost of the seed and distributing it. That Hamilton has got a bad name as a farming district has been mainly owing to the fact that the back country has been chiefly made up by swamp,' but this very circumstance will one day place her in the proud position of being the centre of the richest and * most productive farming district in the Waikato. The samo skill 1 and energy applied

to the reclamation of the large swamp on the west aide ot the river, stretching boundary line of the borough, towards Ohanpo and to the westward, would be followed over a very targe extent of it, at least, with as fair a result as to be seen on the east side the river. '

By all means then let the pioneers of this new flood of valuable immigration which is setting in from Lincolnshire have an opportunity of seeing that the Jands about Hamilton are as well worthy of inspection as any in other parts of the district, and we would suggest that the Borough Council take early steps for giving our visitors a cordial and hearty reception, and make all necessary arrangements for showing them the valuable lands which lie around us in every direction—from the. oozy mud-holes of the swamp in its natural state to the luxuriant paddocks, the orchards, gardens, and coppices, which have sprang np like the palace of Aladdin, as it were by magic, in the midst and out of. such a wilderness, and in so short a time.