THE FIELDING SETTLEMENT.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 224, 26 February 1875, Page 3

THE FIELDING SETTLEMENT.

The following extract from a speech delivered by Colonel Fielding in Wellington a few days ago, will show the condition and prospects of this settlement:— When he came out to the colony he succeeded, as they were aware, in making a contract for the purchase of a block of land in the Manawatu, upon which he proposed to found a settlement, for the purpose of carrying out the scheme. But so soon as the proposal was mentioned by the Corporation Board in London the financial world laughed at the idea. The chief objection was raised to the emigration clauses of the contract. New Zealand, they said, was too far away. Canada and the United States offered greater inducements; people would not face the three months' voyage; and the Corporation, it was declared, would never get 2000 people to migrate to New Zealand. He need hardly say that since that date these prognostications had by no means been verified, for already 910 statute adults had been sent to the settlement, and so great was the pressure now for passages, that the applications were tenfold the number the Corporation deemed it prudent to send. As to their financial position, a sum of £IO,OOO had been raised to launch the scheme, the greater part of which had gone, he hardly knew how, in preliminary expenses, before he joined the Corporation; and in the necessary office and agency expenses since the present contract had been in operation. The first issue of shares had been limited to £25,000, of which £SOOO had been reserved for colonial issue, and scrip to that amount had been sent to Mr Halcombe, in July last; but it had not been deemed advisable to make the issue until the present time; the remaining £IO,OOO of paid-up capital had now been drawn to meet the colonial expenditure. Before he left for New Zealand, it had been decided to raise another £25,000 of capital; but it was deemed advisable to delay the issue until the land sales (which were intended to take place in September, but which were necessarily delayed till December), should have enabled the Corporation to show conclusively the value of the property with which they had to deal. These sales had been so satisfactory that he had no doubt the shares would be easily placed at a premium. He (Colonel ITielding) was aware that some surprise had been expressed in the colony that a larger capital had not been raised to carry on the undertaking hitherto, but the action of the Corporation could be easily explained. In the first place, it was an essential part of their policy not to raise more capital at first than was absolutely necessary, and they preferred at first to have a floating debt rather than encumber themselves with share capital which could not be paid off, being assured that as soon as the real value of the estate had been proved by the sales, their shares would be placed to greater advantage in the English market. In the second place, the Corporation in England were under the impression that Mr Halcombe had ample means at his disposal, arrangements having been entered into by him with the Bank of New Zealand here by which he should have been amply provided. This arrangement unfortunately fell through: To add to the embarrassment of the agent here, a Bum of £7500, retained by Government as a guarantee of bona fides had been retained contrary to their expectation; and thus, while they were in a fool's paradise in England, believing t'-at Mr Halcombe was well supplied with the means of working, and when they were refusing to grant shares which had been applied for in sums as large as £SOOO from a single individual, great difficulty was experienced here in raising the necessary funds to go on with. The General Government, however, behaved most liberally in advancing a sum of £SOOO, secured upon the guarantee fund, and this enabled the work to be carried on until the Board in London could be advised by telegram of the position of affairs in the colony. Colonel Feilding then read several extracts from letters received since his arrival, showing that there was still a large demand for shares in the Corporation. Colonel Feilding next explained the operations of the Corporation in the settlement of the block, and stated that now that nearly one-half of the contract number of immigrants had been sent out, it was his intention to withhold further shipments for eight or ten months, so as to enable those already sent to be firmly established on their country sections. He was glad to find that these people were most anxious to get upon their fifty-acre sections, and to this end a road line of several miles in length, opening up the heart of the block, was now in progress, and the settlement of the families now in Fieldiug on fifty-acre sections along this road line would, with the completion of the railway line from Foxton, be the chief work to which it was proposed to devote themselves during the autumn and approaching winter. He hoped, then, in another ten months to start a second town and settlement, seven miles further alongtne railway line, which would in the meantime be surveyed, and preparations made for the reception of another large body of immigrants. With the results of the late land sales he had every reason to be satisfied, the auction sales of the town lands having realised an average rate of £4O per acre, the suburban land an average of more than £4 per acre, and the rural land from 43s to 50s per acre. During his short stay in the country he had sold three blocks, amounting to 500 acres, at £2 10s per acre, to bona fide working settlers, and had offers from two parties covering an extent of 3000 acres at £3 per acre, which were still under negotiation, which be feared he should have to refuse in their entirety, as the selections would possibly interfere with the plan of settlement proposed,