Mr Bunny and the Special Settlement Scheme.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 123, 29 April 1885, Page 2

Mr Bunny and the Special Settlement Scheme.

To the Editor of tho Industrial Gazette. Sir, — In your last issue I notice (under the heading of Comments on General Topics) your remarks on the special settlement scheme initiated by the Hon. Mr Ballance and the opposition given to that scheme by Mr Bunny. You, sir, quote Mr Bunny's scheme of compulsory settlement some years ago in the Manawatu district, and make comparisons between this and that, and tiy to show that what was practical in one case should necessarily be so in tho other case : but, sir, there is a very wide difference between them, and I propose to show your readers how it is so. The settlers in the Manawatu had the good fortune to take up a block of open plain country at £1 per acre where they could at once go and settle and make their homes with advantage, simply because they could at once turn their attention to dairying or the growth of cereals and turn their lands to some immediate account. Under these circumstances the compulsory residence olause was desirable. Mr Ballance has nothing to offer the bono and sinew (aye and lawyers, doctors, etc., as Mr Bunny puts it) of the country but a vast inaccessible forest, which would be dearer to settlers at a gift than Mr Bunny's Hutt settlement in the Manawatu was to them at £1 per acre. And I aay that without the aid of some such scheme as that promulgated by Mr Ballance, these forests would — under the administration of the Waste Lunda Boards— be bloched up for years, to the disadvantage of individual members of the community aud the conn try generally. No other scheme of settlement in forest country would be likely to work so well as this. The father may send his son, the doctor his gardener, the lawyer his groom, and with their capital assist them in the reclamation of these forests. And were the scheme more liberal in its non-residential clauses, the more successful would the result be. In conclusion I say, — All honor to the man who (theoretically trom your point of view) has propounded such a practical scheme of settlement. — I am, &c, Job Vile. Masterton, March 26, 1885.