Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/204

160 other mills are Grimmond’s, at Ross, 16 h.-p.; Nicholson’s, at Kumara, 12 h.-p.; Maher’s, on Ross Road, 14 h.-p.; Loekington’s, near Ross, water-power; Pott’s, at Rimu, water-power; one at Stafford and another at Kumara, also worked by water. There are thirty or forty varieties of timber in Westland, and the quantity is inexhaustible. Railway communication to the East Coast would revolutionise this industry, as there is an area of good timbered land, within two miles of the railway from Arthur’s Pass to Brunnerton, still remaining in the hands of the Crown, of 65,000 acres, which, at the most moderate calculation, would yield to the Government, for the timber upon it, at least £5 per acre. There is a further area of 100,000 acres outside of this line, of two miles on each side, which is believed would readily bring £3 per acre; and beyond this, there is an area of 2,600,000 acres of Crown lands, still unsold, the value of which is difficult at present to estimate.