The Globe. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1876.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 762, 29 November 1876, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1876.

A new colonising scheme of more than a common character, and conceived in somewhat unusually large proportions, is about to be carried out in New Zealand under the supervision of an influential board of management, the members of which have their headquarters in London. We refer to the undertaking with which the name of Mr Broomhall is connected, and, for the purpose of pioneering it and giving it shape, that gentleman is now visiting various parts of the colony. Those persons at home who have found the means necessary for the practical exposition of the scheme, intend forming a special settlement under the well known temperance principles such as are in force in the Vineland district in the States of America, and it is, we believe, mainly due to the influence of the Hon W. Fox—himself an old adherent of the Temperance Society—that New Zealand has been selected as the probable locale for the settlement. In fact, he has all along encouraged the enterprise by every means in his power, if not actually originating it. Mr Fox, it may be recollected, Cut up some years ago and placed in the

market, subject to temperance rules, a' property which he owed in the Wellington province. The details of the scheme are simple enough, and may be summed up in a few words. The Association, which has been formed strictly on commercial principles, with a view of procuring a suitable interest on the capital invested in the undertaking, purposes purchasing from the Crown 100,000 acres in one block wherever, in the opinion of Mr Broomhall, who has full power to effect the purchase, it can be conveniently found. Of course to effect so extensive a sale in one single block, it was necessary that the Legislature should step in and amend the existing land laws, which prevent so large an area from being sold to one individual, as a free selection. This was done last session, and the Assembly has specially provided by statute that the company of which Mr Broomhall is the accredited representative, shall get the privilege required. In exchange for the concession, the Act in question implies that the 100,000 acres shall be dealt with in such a manner as to promote the immediate occupation of the land. Mr Broomhall's idea is to cut up the block in no less than one hundred portions of 1000 acres each to be offered for sale or lease to persons possessing the needed requisites of means and character together with the willingness of conforming with teetotal principles. New comers are not necessarily to have the preference, any one whom the company may choose to consider eligible stands equal chances with the immigrants which it is intended to procure from Great Britain. Of course the promoters are anxious to realise a fair return for their expenditure, and the scheme is purely a colonising one wherein capitalists invest so much money with the hope of recouping themselves, and more, with the result of the venture. As far as we can see, there cannot be any objection to furthering the views of Mr Broomhall and his friends, and there is no reason to think that, in this special case, the alienation of so large a slice of the public estate to an individual purchaser will bear those unpleasant fruits, to guard against the ill effects of which our law-makers framed the present Land Eegulations. The intended purchase will provide settlement for hundreds of steady families, the heads of which will be carefully examined, and their means inquired into, in order to insure an absolute probability that they will be competent to develop the resources of their new home. The special settlement of Fielding, carried out in the North Island by a colonising association, has so far been a success, and the Temperance Settlement of Vineland, in the American States, of which we spoke before, has more than fully realised the most sanguine expectation of its originators. Mr Broomhall commepced his travels in search of a suitable site for his 100,000 acres in the Auckland province. He does not seem to have been very successful yet, although he has submitted one application to the Waste Lands Board of that province. To discover, say a hundred blocks of 1000 acres each contiguous to one another, and containing land fit for general farming purposes, is no easy matter. Of late years good average land has been pretty well picked up in every part of the colony. Mr Broomhall, by the bye, is a director of the United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution, and holds a ; high position among those gentlemen , in England who take a practical interest in the improvement of the labor- | ing and manufacturing classes. We sincerely trust he may be successful in I finding the site he requires so as to carry out the proposed undertaking in | this colony, and we wish him and his associates every success.