Pemberton Settlement

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 22, 26 July 1893, Page 3

Pemberton Settlement

Mr J. Mackay, of the Labor Bureau, has juat returned from a visit of inspection to thft bueh settlement at Pemberton, and brings a satisfactory report. This settlement comprises % reservation of 2200 acres of bush land, for the clearing of which £10,000 has been set apart. There are about 27 men at present camped on the ground engaged in bush falling, and at this work they manage to earn a wage that will with care, enable them to acquire a small fund of savings by the time the land is ready for profitable occupation. The land it valued at thirty ■billings per acre, the clearing at • liae amount, and sowing with grasa at twenty shillings. The men now engaged have the first right of occupation of the cleared and seedsown sections, and from present appear* ances the greater number will perma* oently settle on the land, and so fulfil the object of the Department. The sec* tions will bo occupied under perpetual lease, and the rent payable will be equal to 4 per cent, on the estimated value of the land. The men have petitioned for a special reservation of ten acres for education and other public purposes, and uptm this area, which is an open and auiuble site, they will form a camp to j which they may bring their wives and families until such time as each man can occupy his own section. Mr Mackay is much gratified at what he saw, and considers the prospects of the settlement excellent.— Standard.