a.—io.

In the total expenditure are included items which contributed towards development, but may be taken in as effective assets in the cultivation of further allotments on the scheme and available for loan or transfer to other development schemes. These are as follows : — £ Farm implements, trucks, tractors and tools ; horses and equipment .. 4,545 Dairy stock .. .. .. ■ ■ • • • • .. 1,636 £6,181 After allowing for depreciation, these items may be deducted from the total expenditure, leaving, say, £28,000 as the cost of development to the 31st March, 1932. This should be considered reasonable for the results obtained. The Horohoro Scheme in relation to General Native-land Development. Apart from the direct results stated above, the effect of the development work at Horohoro may be traced throughout the Waiariki district and beyond. It has led various sub-tribes of Te Arawa, and the tribes of Tauranga, Taupo, and the Urewera country to regard in a different light the land resources still in their possession. It has convinced many refractory and difficult Maori communities that co-ordinated development on a proper plan is sounder for them than individual and isolated efEort, until the time arrives for subdivision into units and individual farming. Representatives of other tribes have been encouraged to visit this and nearby schemes that have been organized in the same way. Such visits have resulted in the extension of the policy of co-ordinated, connected development by owners, who group themselves for mutual assistance. The scheme has built up a fund of experience in the handling of similar country, has assembled a supply of implements and equipment for dealing therewith, and demonstrated not only the possibilities of the pumice lands, but the relation of land-settlement to the health and social problems of the Maori people. The story of this scheme has occupied more space perhaps than should have been alloted to it in a statement for the information of Parliament. The justification may be urged that the scheme has attracted some criticism as an experiment which should have awaited the experience of other Departments of State. The Native Department, which has long sufEered a kind of inferiority complex, should not, it was thought, have ventured so boldly or on so extensive a scale. However practical agriculturists or farm economists or investigating committees may regard the methods and organization adopted or the results obtained, no one can doubt the great influence that this scheme has exercised over a very large section of the Maori race. In the most serious crisis which New Zealand has experienced it has done much to lift the spirit of the people and to spur its youth to action. Nothing has fired the immagination of the right-thinking Maori so much in recent years or done so much to restore to him the self-respect, which the loss of his lands and other resources, and the degradation of his social state, had almost destroyed. Who in the days that lie before can assess the invisible assets, the creation of which may be attributed to the attempt to conquer the uninviting soils of Horohoro ? (b) Pabekakangi. This scheme is practically an extension of Horohoro, but is organized as a separate scheme, because the land is owned by a different branch of the Tuhourangi Sub-tribe of Te Arawa, and it is thought advisable to keep its costs apart from those of the earlier scheme. The blocks that comprise the Parekarangi scheme adjoin Horohoro and are situated at an average distance of six miles from Rotorua, on the north side of the Rotorua-Atiamuri Road. The land is undulating with steep faces, surrounding the area of light forest from which it takes its name. Experience has, however, shown that practically all of the open land, even the steep faces, is ploughable. It is well watered. The land adjoining the bush, judging by experience of land similarly situated at Horohoro, is suitable for the best kind of pasture, but requires special attention because of the heavy fern. The area of open land is estimated at 1,570 acres, of which 431 acres are classed as steep. The appropriate provisions of the Act of 1929 were applied to Parekarangi on the 6th June, 1931. In the management of this scheme it was decided, owing to the looseness of the soil and the great growth of fern, to concentrate on ring-fencing and subdivisional fencing from the inception, and to consolidate the soil with heavy cattle. Fifteen and a quarter miles of fences were erected by the 31st March, 1932. Bullocks were loaned from the properties in the neighbourhood, which were administered by the Maori Land Board, and from Horohoro. The expenditure to the 31st March, 1932, was £4,520. The extent of development carried out up to that date was as follows Acres. £ Area cleared of scrub and fern .. .. .. .. 729 462 Ploughed, cultivated, grassed, and manured .. . . ~ 162 j Cultivated for potatoes .. .. .. .. .. 5) Chains. Fencing into eight paddocks, including material .. .. 1,222 1,470 Road formation .. . . .. . • ■ • • ■ 250 786 Draining .. .. .. • • • - • • • • 186 170 Buildings and accommodation .. . . . .. .. 194 Sundries .. .. .. ' • • • • • • • • 639 £4,520

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