The Farm Makers.

An example of what has been done is seen at Kohekohe, on the Waikato River, where in two years a waste area of 400 acres was converted into good productive dairying land. Other areas in the Lower Waikato and on the Manukau Harbour were developed at small cost and turned to account as small dairy farms where scores of families could earn a living. This good work, unfortunately, has temporarily been interrupted, but Te Puea is striving with all the powers of a gallant spirit to restore the progress movement. In this back-to-the-land movement just sufficient of the old communal system is retained to blend beneficially with the new. The Maori is able to live more simply than the pakeha; he can get much of his food from the river and the sea, and work on the breaking-in of the land is being carried on more economically than similar schemes among the Europeans. Te Puea herself sets an example in this respect.

The arrangement was that the Maoris supply all labour, to the point where seed, fertilisers, fencing material,

(From a photo about 1888.)
King Tawhiao, grandfather of Te Puen Herangi (Died 1894).

stock and implements were required. The Maori labour groups camped on the various blocks were given moderate advances to meet the cost of living, in part, and the cost of materials and stock was financed by the Native Department out of accumulated Maori funds in the hands of the Government.