Settlement oh the West Coast.

Hokitika Guardian, 1 July 1922, Page 1

Settlement oh the West Coast.

To tho Editor of the ‘Lyttelton Times.’ Sir, —Thor eis a great deal of discussion as to the advisability or other, wise of the .immigration scheme that , has brought thousands of immigrants to these, shores—just at a most awkward time. *1 am not going to dis- . cuss that. The fact is, that these immigrants are here and are com (Kiting in the labour market—restricted as , that is, with falling wages and work , shrinking in volume every day—with ! our own artisans and labourers. That these are wanting work a visit to the registry office in the city will demonstrate. At- one place in Colombo Street yesterday morning there were at least twenty men—mostly young and able men—waiting for news of billets. Tho same thing happened some thirty years or so ago. There was then a slump. The Liberal Government of the day were at their wits’ cml to find employment-. At Gore and other places of Southland, men were glad tn work on farms for their tobacco and food. Soup kitchens were in vogue in some of the cities. The poverty in the smaller places was pitiable. 1 know of one case in Southland where a man had to keep his wile and four children on El a week and that was practically given him by a cousin out of sympathy for the family. The Government, as I have said, were at their wits’ end. But the Ballance land settlement schemes had been started. The Improved Farm Settlement Act had been brought- into force and all over the bush country from Waitnangomongo to the Norih Island down to Catlins in the South the waste lands of the country—waste only then because they were covered with hush—were being- occupied. 1 was in Hawke's Bay at tho initiation of the scheme and the roars of laughter that went up from the landed owners at the thought of the small settlors making a living out of the small farms, might have been heard in the Forty Milo Bush. There Scandinavian settlers had proved that settlement could he successful even on thin land. Tt was thin poor land. There was a mere coating of soil over yellow clay mingled with shingle hut the Swedes and Hanes made such a success there that many of us opinel that similar success would he achieved on as good if not better soil. But the laughter was loudest at the class of settlers that the Ballanee Government chose. They took the “out- of works”—plumbers and painters, bakers and candlestick makers. Some of them who only knew that the tvnes of pitchfork were meant to hoist hay. These were the men, who with their wives and children. were drafted out of the congested towns into the country—into virgin hush to cut and fell and hum. The Government assisted them. Tt paid them for all work done oil their selee- j tions—the interest of such work to he j charged against the land. | The very grass-seed that they used they knew that they had ultimately to pay interest on and work and cron- j omy became the order of the day. j Every pound spent on the land was to call to them for its interest ill the coming years. Tims every pound was well spent. One thing anil another help- ; ed them. The first years were years of struggle. Taranaki settlers—whoso settlements were too far hack—found many a pound could he earned by fungus. Tlie Tokonui Gorge settlers found a market for pigs and butter—butter, i gentle reader, butter at fourpenee a pound, rising afterwards to sevenpeneo and eightpence a pound. Tn 139(1 when 1 camped near Riversdale, I think the, pound of butter cost me the latter sum. j Then there came tlie rise in the price, of butter and matters sweetened for the . settlers. The Ballnnce Government at j Bahiatua, the Taranaki settlements and the C’ntlins Biver .settlements felt the improvement.. Tlie settlers were at last ; oil their feet and a comparison of the j successes of different settlements showed that there had been an absurdly | small percentage of failures. The plumbers and tho bakers had made j good. Tn making good they had im- : proved the whole position. They had 1 made “waste” land fruitful—unprofit- ■ able land profitable. Industry flourished as the increased wants of tlie flourishing settlers called for machinery and goods. Then there came a time when the public lands to a great extent were exhausted and the buying of lands for big landowners became the order of the day. Bigger prices needed better farmers and it became again an axiom that only a man used to the soil should till the soil. But latterly money Ims nyt been available to buy these estates, or if bought, they could only he acquired at a ruinous sacrifice oil tlie part of the State or the purchasers. Men slate that there is not land. They look around the old hush districts and find pastures. All seems to have been occupied.

f spoke of Norsowood and Dannovirke when J mentioned the Forty Mile Rush. 1 pointed out that in places there are patches of wonderful land but that on the whole the soil was thin. I did not mention that the rainfall of those districts was responsible for wonderful growth, that lor dairying it was almost perfect. I mention it now because, as we in Hawke's Bay, then wondered if the Scandinavian settlors would grow goats to eke out their livings, so do people nowadays laugh at land which is not unlike that land, with this difference, that the climate is milder as the altitude is less. That land is situated son'll of Hokitika. It is further«iorth than Dunedin and its climate is almost frustless. The growth there is phenomenal. The few dairy factories there have turned out wonderful outputs, In,th in quantity anil quality. But that land is half settled. If you f-o ! to the I,amis Office you will see great extents of country being offered for a ' bagatelle per a thousand acres. Some ’ of this f know is high land —some is i poor land—hut 1 am informed th:\t there are tracts there just as there are i tracts further north in Westland which arc well worth cultivation and able, jl ! not to he ploughed to nflord pasture for thousands more head of stock than | they now carry. -As in the “nineties,” when things ivero low— when men wore wanting ! work, when industry was languishing;, when, as. at present, the hanks were “putting the screw” on. causing de- ) pressim"throughout the land, a depres- | sion that was only to re-act on tliemI selves, tho Government had tented to j the land and put men on.that land to T make a brilliant success of their settleI mentis—So now I hold it is time that I tho Government should wake up from its lethargy and by copying Reliance s ideas make another bid to ensure the

future prosperity of the country. As production, and as wealth, increases as industry regains its feet in the warblasted countries of the old world, si will the demand for our productions increase and our market he assured. This is not a time for relief works—to get men scraping up parks (much as T love tlie parks and the gardens that should lie the pride of Christ church and I am afraid are not) or employed in unproductive work. This if a time when wo should look to tin future by utilising t-hc present. There are, as f linvo said, thousands and thousands of acres oil the West Coast which could he given—yes, I say and say again “given” to the man who has the heart to take it up. Every , settler on tho West Coast in time tc come will be an asset to the country. , He and his will do much to pull off the huge debit that is accumulating on the Otira Tunnel and its railway and he will bo an asset to Canterbury and a , customer of Canterbury products. The value of the land, by Government records, is infinitesimal. Then pay the men to work it, as tho Ballauce-Soddon Government did, and charge the land ‘ with the cost—the settler paying inter I cst. I am sick to death of this cry . of unemployment when I know that at so short a distance away—a distance to be shortened by improved means of locomotion within a very short space of time—there could he land for each and everybody. Tt is being mopped up to-day by local people. There are occupation licenses and grazing leases and the whole gamut of land legislation which uii the West- Const is causing the State lands to pass out of tin hands of the State. Fling open the door to those lauds. Take the hearty and able and plucky men away from tho congestion of the towns anil give them a chance on those lands —and do not load them up with heavy rents and abnormal prices. The position is very much better now than it was in 1394. Markets have been captured and transports organised. In 1391 they were loosely defined. On the other side of the mountains lies an open field if the Government would hut alter the Improved Farm Settlement Acts to include smaller blocks than (1000 acres to he divided into smaller farms. And, besides, the golden wealth of the Coast has not yet been fully tested, and the institution of a monster dredging industry may giro even tlie unsuccessful of those settlers their remuneration which their skill or want of it failed to extract from the land. At any rate they will he afford cd the opportunity of a free life in which they can carve out their own fortune and which will take them away from the tiresome duty of waiting on employment offices and hearing the sickening refrain of “no work lixlaj or else that employment that is given not as a reward for industry hut as a dole in charity.—l am etc.. Cecil Thornton.