THE PROPOSED TEMPERANCE SETTLEMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2246, 30 November 1886, Page 3

THE PROPOSED TEMPERANCE SETTLEMENT.

Messrs Brown and Collins, the two dele gates appointed to visit the West Waipa and Whaingaroa districts and report as to the adaptability of the land for the purposes of a special settlement, arrived at Ngaruawahia on Wednesday last. Mr Brown is a new arrival in the colony, but Mr Collins has had about twenty years colonial experience, dividing his time pretty much between farming and gold-mining. At Ngaruawahia they met by appointment Mr Frank Edgecumbe, Government Surveyor, who had been instructed to show them the land and afford them all necessary information. The party started the same afternoon, going up Firewood Creek, At the head of which they camped f<>r the night. This is the route for a road suggested in the petition shortly to be forwarded to the Ministpr for Lands and a very good road could be made at no great cqjsj* We understand that a sum of £500 is already granted, and this would go an appreciable distance. In the morning the delegates inspected the nati veland in the vicinity. The area of the block is some 1500 acres, part bush and part open fern land, all of good quality, loam on a limestone founda tion. It is rather broken, but 500 or GOO acres would be available for the plough. The natives are anxious, or at least willing to part with this land. Going over the range, the party inspected the Akatea country, the property of the W.C. and S. Company. Of this at least 4000 acres is eminently well adapted for settlement, the soil being of firat : rate quality, but whether it could bo acquired) is another thing. The company would doubtless be willing to lease the surface. Continuing down the valley, through which flows the Waingaro stream, about four miles brought the party to the hot springs, which by this routn are just j twelve miles from Ngaruawahia. They found the springs in excellent order, a nice box having been put in the one ordinarily used. The temperature of one spring was found to be 130°, another, the old or "Tawhiao's spring," 100', while a third is known to vary between 135° and 140.° The party returned along tho Huntly road, which they kept for about 15 miles, recrossing tho range at the back of Hall's farm. The delegates express themselves as being well pleased with the quality of the land, but they are of opinion that nothing can be done until it is opened up by roads. There is sufficient Crown land close to the mouth of Firewood Creek on which to locate five or six families, and these could be employed on the road with advantage both to themselves and the cause. As the means of communication became extended, fresh settlers could be placed on the land and so on. There is room on the lands between the Waipa and the sea for hundreds of families. In addition to the blocks named above, there is some excellent land, over a thousand acres, to the westward of the springs, along the Kahuhuru stream, up to the head of which the Huntly and West Coast road has been made, and where for the present it terminates. Then there is the Waimai valley, still further west, containing a large tract of really first-class land, adjoining Te Akau run. On the whole, after making due allowance for a little natural exaggeration on the part of Mr Hill and his compatriots, there can be no doubt that a settlement, whether of the character proposed or an ordinary kind, might be successfully established in the country lying west ot the Waipa.