THE STRATFORD ROUTE

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3047, 26 January 1892, Page 2

THE STRATFORD ROUTE

(liY TKLKQKAPH -OWN - CnUKKSI'ONIIKST.) AfjCKI.ANO, !'<'"!• Nit'lit. Mr WaYMOUTH, Secivl n-y of the X iil'iern R-iilwiiy League, ha; lvjciwd t 'I'jr.niis from Messrs IlursthoiHe.-md Oiiphant, who are with tlio Auckland i-n poditi-m on nmti fnr Stratford, which sh-.ws l.in.t up l> the l!2ml iiist go'id pr.» W r.-ss had 1.n.-n -undo. The telegrams uro .rarm.uy Wild, and were sent bu-jk by t h>- !>■ rs'-s r-turiuiitf tu Otorohanga when the parly h i<l to proceed further i.n foot.

Mr Hnrsthmise, sun-ayr accompanying tho piivty, wirus :-"Stailn 1 i>lll , w:i!k ihis morning; all are doing well. W.Mthe.r very fine, expect tu lvach Slr.ilf.inl .;» the the"27th in the evening, or on the moniiiiß of the 28th. Mr Oliphant. wlin rrtpresont-i tlm Nwfclip.rn Railway Leusriic, wires as follow-; :-- " (Jhuia is a insignificant vall»y. All well.' The Star special iv.porter sends a despatch from u point sixty miles from Ta Kuiti and eighty milas from where the party coiiiiiienci<l tlir.ir walk through the bush. H.«. <l>!scnbe-i th<". country for a considerable di>Unce as very poor, and then proceeds as follows :—We cunped on Wednesday night, nonr Muliara, on the Ohiu-a River, 23 miles from Pnm-otur.io, and eight from the point of divor(,'fliic>. Here we entered the Upper Country, growing lridh fern, flax, tutu and Hnmb, broken into innumerable steep hills with a central valley through which the Ohur.i, one of the WiUieranni tributaries runs. Both sides of the valley as on the Onenruhe are flanked by very thick bus!), the timber being chiefly kahikatea, ritnu, totara, mitai and tawa. The country appears very much better than Onutrnhe, but is very broken. Clover is fairly plentiful. The country, he says, is vary sparsely populated, there being no natives between Waimeha and here, forty miles. There is really little flat arable land in this part -jf the Ohura basin in comparison to tho lonL'th of country traversed. The valley varied from half a mile tJ a mile in width, and tho soil is Qxcellent, but the bivikeii nature of the country militates against tillatre un any very considerable sciih , ., but for pastoral purposes the land can b<> highly spoken of. Leaving Maharii on Thursday iii"ining we resume our way down the valley of the Ohura, following the railway survey lino closely for twenty miles. The greater part of this journey was flat bush-covered country, the lino running through over ten miles of useful mixed bush. The soil here is very good, the hills being covered with high fern and tupaki, with s;ime clover and English grate is in patches. There are no engineering difficulties on this portion of the line from the point of divergence,

and not many cuttings. This camp is thirty miles from diverging. The road is a narrow bush track. Wβ abandoned two pack-horses yesterday in the Oliuim bush nearly dead from the poisonous nnerorann native stinging nettle, and to-day we send all the horses back to Te Kuiti, and start on foot for Stratford, where we expect to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday next. The weather is fine, and the party all well

ut thfl tune of writing. The soil is an excellent vegetable loair., with papa rock underneath. The southern side of valley is clear of bush, and for a number of miles up the hillside includes numbers of old Maori clearings. The Olmra Valley proper drains about 75,000 acres, most of which could either be cultivated or would make splendid pasture country. There ara many good positions for bush mills. On the extensive Hat in the Waikaka and Mangaroa Valleys running into these there are tracts of fertile soil. Mr Cad man and tlm cither members of the party are much better satisfied with this portion of the route.