Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/107

Rh long lying idle had aught to do in the choice of the locality, is a moot point which need not now be debated. Certain it is that the very isolation of the spot marred at the outset the chances of the settlement proving a success, and there might have been found other and more eligible localities for settlement nearer Westport—at the Mohikinui, for instance, where good land, timber, coal, and gold are found, with a good river harbour, and also easy access by road and rail. In November 1874, a number of new arrivals (married men and families) from England, mostly from the southern and eastern counties, also a few Shetland fishermen, were transhipped from Nelson to the Karamea, with their little household belongings, a supply of stores, and the promise of periodical replenishment. These settlers were located on some high terrace land on the south side of the river, where 4000 acres had been set apart under “The Nelson Special Settlement Act, 1872,” and here they built their huts, made clearings, and fenced their ground for cultivation. A road was made through this settlement, and also after a time the inland track from the Wanganui to the Mohikinui River. On this work the settlers were employed, and were paid good wages, the understanding being that working half time, the rest of their working days were to be spent on improving their small farm holdings. The idea was good, but the results were unsatisfactory. The inland road was badly laid off and badly constructed, and much money was wasted; the settlers found all their earnings absorbed in the cost of living; and worst of all, they found that the land they were trying to cultivate was absolutely worthless for growing either root or grain crops. Dissensions also arose between the settlers and those entrusted with the control of the settlement, and though official inquiries were held, and a mass of evidence gathered, the settlers to this day avow that the real cause of their grievances was never probed, and that the inquiry was but mere make-believe. This, however, was as nothing compared with the fact that they lost more than two years of their labour in attempting to bring into cultivation land well nigh worthless. In addition to these sections they had, however, been promised some other land on a heavily timbered flat close to the river, and some four miles up stream from the river mouth. To this “Promised Land,” as they had learned to call it, all the families first located on the terrace ultimately flitted, and there, with renewed hopes and undaunted energy, commenced afresh the work of building up homes in the wilderness of scarce trodden bush land. Other families who had settled on the north side of the river, some at the swamp, and some in the bush, finding their land passably good, remained there, and have now snug and improving homesteads. The experiment at the “Promised Land” also proved successful, and at the present day it will be scarce possible to find in all New Zealand a more productive district. The ground, rich in all the elements which make culture a success, produces root and garden crops wherein prize vegetables are the rule and not the exception. Promoters of horticultural shows may here find a multitude of vegetarian trophies. Wheat, oats, barley, and maize, though grown, as yet, but in small quantities, yield plenteously. The bush affords succulent herbage, and fodder for live stock; and the settlers, though poor in world’s goods, in money, and in house plenishings, have, in homely phrase, turned the corner of