The man who owns a hundred acres or so of the good levels of Matamata, on the Waikato-Rotorua railway line, is on a first-rate paying wicket. It beats any goldmine for regular returns. These sage remarks are prompted by the announcement by the Matamata Chamber of Commerce that the output of four dairy companies within half-a-dozen miles radius of the local post office totalled almost £1,000,000 last season.

Certainly not even Taranaki can better the income from a similar area of cow country. Not long ago the writer visited a little Matamata Plains farm, just a hundred acres. The owner proudly said: “There's not a yard of waste land here; every acre's working.” He had a hundred cows, and made a very good living out of the property; had a motor-car for himself and his wife, and the boys of the family had their own car and found plenty of time to use it after attending to the duties of the day.