The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1888. A WISE PROVISION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1859, 5 June 1888, Page 2

Th c Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 1888. A WISE PROVISION.

So far as we are able to learn those small settlers, who have been placed on land under Mr Bal lance's Village and Special Settlement schemes, are not to have thoir request granted to have their holdings brought under the deferred payment system so that they might iecuro the freehold of their sections. Tho request was not of course a general one, and wae not pressed with any considerable amount of energy, go we can easily understand the Government refusing it. The tenure of the settlements will, therefore, remain as fixed by tho late Government, aad m this, wo think, wisdom is shewn by tho present Ministry. There are many honest industrious people who think that nothing is sure m respect to land unless it is freehold. A lease, they consider, is only a temporary and by no means a fixed or certain possession. Therefore, to expend labor and capital upon land which is not likely to belong to the family for ever ia seemingly an expenditure for the benefit of some one else outside of their own family. The tenure now enjoyed under tho scheme of Mr Bftllance is as certain as if it were a freehold, and, therefore, tho capital of the small settler is husbanded or devoted to effect improvements upon his section, and tho education and training of his family. At present the small settler cannot havo recourse to a mortgage office if he should feel himself run into difficulties or seeming difficulties, and therein there is much to be thankful for. Were he allowed to raise money on his holding ho would be a good mark for the moneylender, but as this is prevented ho sleeps m no fear of a foreclosure should he get into financial straits. Mr Hobbs ot Auckland, has been endeavoring to obtain for settlers m his locality freehold tenure m place of the ordinary regulations, bub this departure [ would bo fraught only with danger to tho genuine success of village settlements m tho North which, from what we can learn, are proving a means of livelihood to many a laboring family. W Q h a ? e the assurance of tho " New Zealand Herald" that the settlements m the North are, as far as can be judged, evan more successful than they are m the South. Our contemporary says :— "We havo learned that, considering some of the untoward circumstancen of these village settlements m the North they have really wedded these people to a country life, A very largo proportion of tho settlers being of the unemployed, and largely unaccustomed to rural pursuits were loudly declared to bo unfitted for ecttlerß and foredoomed to failure. Yet with the exception of about two per cent tlmy havo stuck to thoir little homesteads loyally, and are well on the way of making their little farms self supporting, ft has ba.en the most interesting and tho most humane effort ever made m these colonies for promoting humblo settlement, Jt virtually solved the unemployed question for tho time m Auckland, and brought comparative comfort and the prospect of ultimate independence home to many humble and jdisfcressed families ; and though tho eyatem haa bp/sn bitterly maligned — and especially m the Soutfy they took freely large sums of money to feed their unemployed, and grudged a far less sum to settle our Auckland unemployed m permanent homejß-wthat feeling seems now to have largely passciji away j and the wise and beneficent character of the sehome has been prove/I. Wo sincerely trust that the Government wjll deal loyally and generously towards those settlements, oven though they owe their origin to othor hands, and that neither tho professed friends nor foes of tho system will bo permitted- to interfere with their success." This testimony added to our ,own knowledge of the general successfulness pi the {scheme should go far to impress upon itki ./opponents that it has dono somo real good. l£ Jg a.9 a system of land settlement Bup'oriov to anything we have seen or read of ,and we trust it will be long continued m operation and that more land m suitable localities will be thrown open for selection by small qetHprs. The Bchomo is a benevolent one and one which while benefiting the struggling aettler benefits the country and especially the locality wliava the settlement is founded. It w » sche^io wkerp the most dependent classes aro plo.cc<j on an Independent footing and where the humblest are raised to a position of comfort and security from tho fluctua-. tions of the labor market.