1) Man pays heavy price for settlement by loss of beauty of countryside.

"Nature is an ironic mistress and has her revenge on man for his transgressions by her own inexorable and retributive methods... it would seem man has lost on the bargain." Thus states Mr. G. L. Adkin in his book "Horowhenua" when describing the penalty of erosion brought about by the destruction of forests in the acquisition of hill farm lands.

1) Land was cheap and terms generous for a settler who was willing to clear his holding from bush.

First class town, suburban and rural land in the centre of one of the most fertile tracts of flat country at prices varying from £2 to £6 an acre. That was the offer made by the Crown Lands Office in 1889 after the Government survey of the Levin area.

2) Survivors of massacre first to clear bush.

The clearing where the Ostlers - the first family in the Levin block - settled, was the refuge of Maori survivors of Te Rauparaha's massacre.

3) Terms of settlement on land in 1889.

"Charming, romantic township". This is the description above the sale notice of another block of block near Levin, put

up for auction by T. Kennedy, MacDonald and Co, on instructions from the Manawatu Railway Company.