THE FAR NORTH.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 385, 9 April 1902, Page 4

THE FAR NORTH.

(Auckland Herald). The North of Auckland has come triumphantly through the searching en-

quiry to which 'its, soil, its climate, its people, and its potentialities have been subjected by the party of representative men whose peregrinations have been daily reported. The party, it may be well to recall, was formed upon the invitation of the Farmers’ Union, and included a number of experienced agriculturists and pastoralists from the .South Island. The The impression of these gentlemen, as given iast night at the banquet which marked the close of a most pleasurable and instructive tour, confirm all that tiie advocates of Northern development have so long maintained. That a great and fertile peninsula, possessed of the most genial of climates and capable of maintaining in comfort a great population, lies practically locked up at the door of the largest city in the colony is a conclusion which iias been forced upon every member of the party, not least upon those who came front the broad and productive plains of Canterbury. And they have realised, moreover that the scat-

tered handfuls of settlers who have found footing in the North have made their snug and pleasing homes in spite of all their drawback", and disadvantages, and rival in the wholelieu'tedness of their hosiiitality the genial season; of their unrivalled climate. It is not too much to say that tiie North >r Auckland can never again be so complete ly mis understood as it lias long been. Those who continue to look upon Auckland City as “ the terminus of the North Island,” mid U> declare that our isthmus divides g-od lands Tom the southwards from bad lands lo the northward, will be generally

recognised henceforward as merely displaying a profound lp-iiorance of tin colonv in -which they ''well. If the? lias been a substratum 'f truth in the joniplaiiit of pioiies of i.e Norte that the city lias neglected them we do not hesitate to assert that such neglect has passed away in the presence of greater knowledge ; and we nay hope that the administrative and legislative neglect which has stayed the settlement of a region " hoary with age” as one of our Southern visitors aptly put it, will similarly pass away as the character of the North becomes widely and accurately known. . Upon the seriousness of the loclnngup of the North through the existence of great areas of native lands, the entire party was in agreement. The settlers were unanimous in desiring to purchase, and complained bitterly of the change in tenure now being introduced by Government. Regarding locked-up lands, we have over and over again called public attention to this fundamental error of our colonial land policy. Last night a specific instance was given, of 713,000 acres of the richest land capable of carrying easily a population of 5000 people. Rut this is only one case of many, albeit a specially flagrant case. Said one of the speakers last night: “We rode for miles through unoccupied forest, and this tersely describes the experience ot the party wherever the land is most suitable for settlement. The colony must do justice to the Maori race, full and complete justice, even more than justice if need be. But it is for the good neither of the Maori nor of the Rakeha that land should be withheld from labour and labour denied access to land. The North of Auckland is intimately more burdened with great estates from which the agriculturist is excluded than in any part of the South Island or any part of the United Kingdom. To buy up estates for subdivision in the South, and to fulminate against the land tenures of the Old Country, is absurd so long as we have these vast areas kept under nation i al lock and key. The result of this state of affairs is that settlement in i tne North lias been made unpreceden- • tedly patchy. Roads have to be carried 1 through wide reaches of Crown and j Native lands;, which contribute nothing to the local revenues, and the existence 1 of which makes it impossible for the ' scattered handfuls of settlers to main- ( tain suitable roads. Such a position is a startling example of how-not-to govern. Yet what can we expect so 1 long as the Government expends its energy and its resources in buying up : private estates instead of in develop- , ipg its own property and in bringing the Native lands into effective use ? s Whether roads and railways should precede settlement or settlement precede roads may be an interesting topic for discussion, but in the North the iirst great difficulty is that increased settlement is rendered practically impossible by the present method of administering the land. That there are cases of good land not being taken up 1 means nothing. Or if it means anything it it an indictment of the Lands .Department, for it is notorious that would-be settlers are being constantly turned away from our shores by the difficulty of obtaining an opening. Conditions must be made suitable for settlers by Governments as much as private owners.

Naturally, our Southern visitors did not as enthusiastically subscribe to the North’s claim for railway facilities as they certified to its climate and its soil. Why should they ? There is only so much money to go round in railway construction and few Southerners have Mr Laurenson’s self-denial. But this after all is a secondary matter. When we say “secondary ” we do not mean that the North of Auckland Extension is not of primary importance, but that its completion wil follow prompt ly upon public recognition of the value of the country it will traverse and open up. The glowing tribute paid last night to that country, by Aucklanders ' and South Islanders aii'm. is : a guarantee that public‘recognition .cannot iolig lie delayed. Our English vocabulary is\som‘ewhat sparsely prov l i]e(f with terjns of praise and laudation anti it Was ‘ rans&pked last night to enable speaker after speaker to ‘express his feelings upon the North of Auckland. Its “ wonderful estuaries” appealed to one. Its “lovely scenery ” to another. “It calls like the East,” declared a reader of Kipling. It is “ New Zealand’s Garden of Eden,” asserted a further admirer, While the President of our Chamber of Commerce fell back upon the symbol of Pisgaa and cried that they had been viewing “ l the Promised Band, a land flowing with milk and honey, and one which will mean most to old colonials was when the South Islanders admitted that there was land in it “ as g'i od'as Canterbury,” And behind .I:is iumeisal tribute were hard facts. The A.OO acres that carried two sheep the acre and 400 head of cattle ; the two acres of grapes that produced from £-iO,Q to £SOO per annum ; the matchless fruit' that graced every hospitable table ; the fat cattle of the Whangarei saleyards ; the grass man gpgw wherever the forest was cleared ; rife'pastures wjit-ro stopk never needed artificial food p tjie absence'of poverty; and the general'absence of any desire rp 6 elJ out, where the'freehold had 'been secured'; were among Ihp thpiisand and one items’ of interest which impressed tire party aryl "governed its 'opinions, pin- Northern Oindprelja is pert a oly coming to the end of her long fipprepamong the ashes of neglect. She will he .ohlcially acknowledged the fairest of New Zealand's, districts in tiie' pot Jar distant future and’Will rejoice in her rightful dowry of roaup . and railways.