The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1886. Small Farmers

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 124, 30 March 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 1886. Small Farmers

Our attention has been directed to a letter which appeared in a Wellington contemporary over the signature of "A Farmer's Son," wherehe inquires what are the openings of a farmer landing in Wellington with £100 cash. This query is provoked by an advertisement of the Agent-General of the colony in England, in which it is stated the colony is prepared to assist small farmers, and in paying passage money to New Zealand, if desirous of taking up and settling on the land ; conditionally on each head of a family being able to show that he is the possessor of £100 cash. The writer says — "I am afraid the Agent-General's bait will lead many a poor fellow astray, unless it can be clearly demonstrated that he can make a living with £100 capital." We regret that we have not the full text of the advertisement before us, as a single quotation from it may not be in harmony with the whole. But we may at once state that even with the meagre information we have, we are perfectly satisfied with the advantages within the reach of farmers who land here — passages paid for them — with a hundred pounds in their pockets. The fallacy is, that this hundred pounds is treated as if it were the actual sum of the capital required to commence farming, whereas the thews and sinews of the man, with the labor of his sons and daughters, is to be added, and in the long run will be found to be the real source of profit. The Small Farm Associations Act, for which the colony is indebted to the Hon. Mr Ballance, is one certain means by which men accustomed to agricultural pursuits in the Old Country can here make independent homes, for themselves and their families, in a very few years. It was certainly never anticipated by the Agent-General, who is also an experienced colonist, that any one would be foolish enough to imagine he intended to convey the idea that a farmer could purchase land and stock, and manage a farm with a hundred pounds. What he doubtless intended to convey was that such a sum would enable a new settler to take up land on deferred payments, and while the process of clearing or breaking up such land was going on, he might work at some other jobs to which hie previous experience had fitted him. That is to say he could be earning half wages during the year or two occupied in preparing his own land. We speak advisedly on this point for numbers of our best and most prosperous settlers commenced and wrought on this system, and are now independent. We may remark In passing, that very few of themjiad " the hundred pounds to start with." '"Farmer's son" concludes thus--:/ " Men landing with £500, £1000,; or £1500, what could they take up in land, and what return might they reasonably anticipate?" Such a question is most difficult to answer because so much depends on J the man who takes up the land. If .] one man with £500 be industrious and frugal, he may do as much or more than the man with £1000, but who is idle and improvident. It is not a mere question of money, it is a question of muscle. As to where the land is ; it lies in the Manawutu and Oroua counties — the finest in the colony, with an open market in Wellington for a hundred times the amount of the present produce. This may net be available to-day, but in the course of a very few months it will be aecom--plislied by the opening of the Wel-lington-Manawatu railway. By this meaus intending settlers will reap the advantage of not being put to the expense of living in Wellington for even a day, but they can be put on the land within 48 hours after touching tho shores of New Zealand.