VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1339, 11 September 1886, Page 3

VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS

The systen of village settlement: inaugurated by the present Minister fo Lands promises to be thorough!] successful, and to assist largely ir solving the problem of colonisation. Ir the Wellington and Hawke’s Bay pro vincial districts hundreds of families have found homes for themselves undei this system, and thriving townships are springing up where only a year or two ago there was nothing to be seen fqi miles and miles but apparently interminable forest. Indeed, the progress made in some localities is so marvellous as to be incredible to those who have not seen it; as, for instance, at Pahiatua, situated between Woodville and Wellington. Little more than twelve months ago two or three small buildings, a country hostelry, and a few acres of clearing were the sole evidences of civilisation, while, thanks to the village settlement scheme, there is row quite a populous township, with its newspaper, its puolic school, its places of worship, and its Bank agencies, in short, all the elements of an embryo city. As a consequence town sections have risen in value enormously, and allotments which would not have fetched a ten pound note two years ago are now valued for ten or twenty timee that sum. All this because all round Pahiatua village settlements have been established, so that it is or will soon be the centre of business for many hundreds of fancies thus settled on the soil. And what has been done in that locality is, we are pleased to see, being repeated in Auckland also. In several parts of that provincial district areas of land have been brought under this system, and

thrown open for application, and (to quote from the Herald) “ it is very gratifying to all those who have looked on the vil’age settlement scheme as the most important new departure made for many years in the actual placing of people on the lands, to learn that as the day draws near on which applications must be received the interest in the scheme has been growing. Already some hundreds of people, apparently of the requisite stamp, have called at the Lands Office examining the surveys and eliciting information ; and it is believed that on the date at which applications will be made, there will be applicants far more numerous than the lots available. In anticipation of this contingency Mr London has already renewed his application for additional lands for settlement, and a telegram from Mr Ballance expresses the Minister’s readiness to promptly meet the requirements of the people, so that nothing may stand in the way of their settlement on the land.” All this is as it should be, and we congratulate Mr Ballance upon the success which is crowning his honest efforts in the sister island. But while doing so, we earnestly call upon him to take means to extend the benefits of the village settlement system to all parts of the Middle Island also. Something is, we believe, being done in this direction down about Gatlin’s River, and in some parts of

this provincial district, but in many parts of this island, in Canterbury in particular, there are no Crown lands: available in localities in which it is especially desirable that the village settlement scheme should be brought into operation, as for example in the immediate neighborhood of Oamaru, Waimate, Tiraaru, and Ashburton ; though were village settlements established in these localities a speedy end would be put to the unemployed difficulty, and a great fillip given to the progress of the places named. What is needed is that some system should be devised under which the requisite land may be acquired by the Crown, and there is no subject to which the attention of Ministers can be more profitably devoted than to the working out of the necessary legislative measure to bring such a scheme into operation. The efforts of private members in this direction and the discussions which took place last session on the subject will supply many useful hints and ideas, and although the subject is necessarily surrounded by difficulties, a workable plan can, we feel sure, be developed if only the task be gone about with energy and determination. During the last hours of the session the matter was brought up by a question put by the hon. member for Lincoln, Mr O’Callaghan, and the members for Waimate and Waitaki deputationised the Minister of Lands with reference thereto. In both instances a reply was given that careful attention should be devoted to the subject during the recess, with a view to the preparation of a Government measure to be submitted next session, and we are glad to observe by a recent Press Association message that steps are already being taken to give effect to those promises. We trust that Mr Ballance will succeed in producing a satisfactory and workable measure, and that so soon as the sanction of Parliament is obtained no time will be lost in extending to all parts of the colony the advantages which already various portions of it are deriving from the operation of the village settlement system, .