MINERS AS SETTLERS

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 58, 6 September 1926, Page 8

MINERS AS SETTLERS

SCHEME OF A LONDON NEWSPAPER

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE IN

MIGRATION,

(From Our Own Correspondent)

LONDON, 31st July.

The "Morning Post" has- inaugur* ated a scheme for sending miners to Australia to take up work on the land. That the journal is giving a good deal of publicity to the scheme in its own columns is air to the good. Sir. Joseph Cook (High Commissioner for Australia)' has given the scheme his blessing. "It decs infinite credit'to 'The Post,' "he says. "Yet it is only another instance of the constant and sympathetic attention paid to Australian affairs by the editor of that great newspaper. This is by no means the first time the 'Morning Post' has shown a comprehensive grasp of Australian problems. I can only add my good wishes for the success of the scheme, and trust that that measure of success will be all that the 'Morning Post' intends." In the House of Commons Captain F. Guest, Liberal member 'for Bristol North, asked the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs whether his attention had been called to the scheme prepared under tho auspices of a London newspaper for-- the emigration of 200 miners; whether this scheme had.the approval of His Majesty's Govern? ment; and whether he had received, ot was negotiating, any other similar scheme. . Mr\ Amery replied: "Yes, sir, the scheme was submitted to the Overseas Settlement Committee, and has been approved. I have not received any similar proposals up to the pre"We believe," says "The Post" ori the general question of migration, "that, apart from the schemes of the Governments concerned, or in association with tho British, Federal, , and State Governments, private enterprise might be pro flt"My directed to large schemes of .o^ituent. To secure th« interests of the settlers, the profits should be limited to a certain percentage upon the capital invested. If the proper conditions were observed, the investment should be sound. It should be practicable to take up » tract of cultivable land, and by building communications by road or railway raise its value. The men employed upon the pioneer work should be enabled to settle upon farms along the route, while other farms might be resold.

RECLAMATION IN BRITAIN.

'' A great deal of the money expended in this country upon schemes for the relief of unemployment might be expended to very much greater advantage in Australian settlement. For instance, according to tho information elicited from various Ministers by Captain Guest, some fifteen millions (equivalent to five years' income of the Overseas Settlement scheme) have been spent since 1918 upon settling 20,368 men on small holdings, of which 4505 have been relinquished. There is no large area of land in this country which it is economically worth while to reclaim, and the constant demand of the Socialist Party that works of re« clamation should be instituted is witfe out meaning." —j