THE COUNTRY BETWEEN THE WAIPA AND PUNIU RIVERS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXX, Issue 2426, 28 January 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE COUNTRY BETWEEN THE WAIPA AND PUNIU RIVERS.

; (by OUR SI'EC'IAr, CORRESPOND KNT.) | PART 11. It will be a thousand pities if this delta ; between the two rivers falls into the hands of a few speculators, for it is just the land for small farm?. The river flats will grow any liind of crop, especially will they be i suitable for wheat, while the slopes will make splendid pastures. Not that wheatgrowing will be confined to tho limited flats, for it has been proved beyond doubt that it can be successfully grown on the higher lands; but these level tracts arc eminently suitable for grain-growing, a fact that has been proved by tho natives. At. the south side of the mountain where the land abuts on the Kawa swamp, it is too broken for anything save grazing; it is not very rough, but too much so for cropping. From one of these ridges a good view of tho western side of the Kawa hill is obtained. A clearly-dsfined depression near the top can bo seen which looks as if part of the hill had been blown away by a volcanic eruption. The crater, if crater it be, has been tilled up again to a great extent, for the sides slope gradually up to the spur on each side and the top, while in front it slopes slightly upwards, and then a broad ridge falls away more steeply to the foot of the hill. That this depression near the top is due to volcanic action there can be no doubt; the conformation of the hill points plainly to tint—indeed, the appearance of the country just here indicates that it is formed by upheavals. From this point we turned off to the right, and followed a spur which led down to the Waipa, which we forded at a natire settlement named Tuahu, and here I saw by far the best land of any we rode over that morning. It is a rich claycy loam. At a distance a newly - made sod fence looked white, like pipe clay, but on coming closer it presented a very different appearance. There was no mistaking its character. It is friable instead of stiff like pipeclay, and a piece that was ploughed and harrowed showed how well it could be worked. Unfortunately there was no great extent of it, and when the title of the land ie made clear there is little doubt that such choice spots will be set aside as native reserves. Here we saw some very well bred two and three-year-old steers, in good condition. Some were fat enough for the butchers. Three or four weeks in a clover paddock would make all of them prime beef. All along the Waipa here are large beds of splendid shingle, unlimited quantities of which could be got for metal, for which purpose no doubt it will be used when the country is opened up and roads are* made. What splendid roads we would have here in the liangiaohia district if such deposits were close at hand. Its distance from the railway will preclude its ever being used except for roads in that vicinity. The water in the river here is beautifully clear, and eminently suitable for trout. After finding it I dismounted and put my hand in the water to test its temperance, and found, notwithstanding the hot weather, that it was not too warm for trout to live and thrive in Out of the millions of ova sent out from home and America it seems very strange that the waters of this part of the district should be over-looked. It would be simply a waste sending up a few hundreds of young fry; they would soon be disposed of by the eels. If a few thousand were liberated they would soon find their way into the Puniu and other tributaries of the Waipa, and in a few years all would be well stocked. All along the Waipa hero the land is of the very best quality ; indeed, I know of none as good round these districts, but except where actually cultivated, there is the same thick growth of briars as lower down by Kopua; besides briars there is plenty of gorse, and the nearer we got to Otorohanga the more of the latter was to be scon. The natives have a magnificent patrimony in the whole of the King Country on this side of the ranges, and a very great extent of it is suitable for small farms. By far the best that I have seen is that which I have just described, and tho valley of the Mangatutu, which rnns from the Puniu to Korakanui, and is beyond Orakau. That this country has a good future before it if settled upon by small farmers of the right class no one can doubt, and the sooner it is so settled upon the better, for no matter what some may say about enough land being settled upon for the number of consumers, I hold that the only true solution of the question of depression in this country lies in the increase of population and the settlement of the land in small farms. People have said to me, " What is the good of opening up more land, or settling more producers on it, when more wheat is grown now than can be sold at a profit?'' To that I reply, settle the producers on it by thousands, and consumers will quickly follow Twenty farms of fifty acres each will not put upon the market anything like the quantity of wheat that a one thousand - acre farm could. There would be twenty families to feed, and they would consume a very large portion of the grain and other crops they grew. Furthermore, these twenty families would require clothes and articles of food which require to go through a manufacturing process before they reach the consumer. With a market at their door manufacturers would soon erect factories, and other businesses which must necessarily accompany an influx of population in the centres would spring up, All these would provide, a market at home, so that the bogey of overproduction consequent on an increase of producers is nothing more than a phantom, which would disappear like mist before the sunshine of prosperity Let the Government, if they are willing to do so, acquire the land and give it, even for nothing, to men who poss..ss a little capital to work it, Send to England to the farmers there who want to leave and take their money to some country where they can acquire land of their own, and tell them to come out here and land will be given them for nothing if they will settle on it. Hold out the same inducements as Canada and America did, and though our soil tnav not be quite as good as that in Manitoba, in Canada, and Dakota and Minnesota in the States, we have as a sot off against that a climate that is never cold enough to necessitate tho housing of stock for five or six months of tho year, and not as hot in .summer as in many of the States, in which the temperature is twenty, thirty, and even forty below zero in winter. Settle the laud thickly and the country will right itself. Factories will spring up all over the country and prosper without the aid of such rotten props as protection and bonuses. Give up the perpetual lease fad, which is so objectionable to the Briton—who likes a freehold of his own—and let him have the land even for nothing, if necessary, to induce him to bring his capital out here. But if it was sold at a reasonable price, I do not think it would be necessary to offer it for nothing. Sir George Grey s idea is a good one—viz., for the Government to acquire the land, and let the settler have it by payiug five per cent of the cost yearly, the freehold to be acquired at any time he chose to pay it off. That, however, lie applies more particularly to land at present held by large farmers and speculators. The same might apply to land acquired from the nutives, fyr the pur-

chase money would be so small ,hat the interest would not be felt, and th settler would have his capital to work with, but whenever he chose to pay the original purchase money the land should becomo iiis absolute property. There is little use, however, in trying to got foreign capital invested hero either in land or business while tho infamous Property-tax exists, and our present system of railway management obtains. These will have to be allered before investors will turn their attention to New Zealand.