THE FEILDING SETTLEMENT.
A number of gentlemen attended at Bethuue and Hunter’s office yesterday afternoon, to receive from Colonel Feilding a statement of the conditions and prospects of the Feilding settlement, preparatory to the issue in the colony of £SOOO worth of scrip sent out for that purpose in July last year—the object of floating the scrip in the colony being to convince people in England of the confidence of the colonists themselves in the success of the scheme. The following report, addressed to the Secretary of the Corporation, had been circulated by Colonel Peilding previous to the meeting:— X have to report that, after a thorough inspection of the affairs of the Corporation in this colony, 1 am more than ever convinced of the great value of the property in New Zealand. As tins opinion is pretty generally shared by such competent judges here as have had an opportunity of visiting the Manchester block, I have considered that the time has non arrived for the emission of the .£SOOO of share scrip sent out for issue in this colony in July, 1874. My reasons for choosing this time for tins issue are ' —lst Because now that so satisfactory a price has been obtained at public auction for such of our land as was offered, it appears to me that so small an amount as £SOOO would be readily subscribed, even in the present state of the raopey market. 2nd. Because, as the directors are making a fresh issue m England of 20 000 shares, probably at a premium, it would not be fair on the English shareholders to defer any longer the emission of the 6000 scares reserved tor issue at par in this colony. 3rd. Because, that if the 20,000 shares now offered for subscription in England are taken up at a premium, it would create confusion if tho 6000 old shares and the 5000 new shares reserved for issue in the colony should be offered at the same time. 4th. Because, as the dividends on the profits of last year’s operations will most probably be declared at the general meeting on the 11th of March next, it would bo advisable to make tho issue of these 5000 shares, as far as possible, contemporaneous with that date.
Col. Feilding, in giving an outline of the purposes and scope of the Corporation, stated that it was formed in the year 1860, at a time when great distress prevailed amongst the poorer classes in the east end of London. The Duke of Manchester, Earl Denbigh, and other gentlemen, moved by charitable and philanthropic views, started a scheme with the_ object of finding homes for these people in the colonies, and in March, 1870, he was asked to join the society. He did join it,’and at the request of his coadjutors he travelled through all the British Colonies' (excepting tho West India islands) with the object of discovering which presented the greatest advantages to emigrants, and was most likely to give the Corporation a fair start. His own views, he might say, were opposed to those of gentlemen who had been in office before him, for he was of opinion that unless operations were conducted upon a commercial basis, the existence of the society would prove ephemeral, and this view was more and more confirmed as things went on. 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 Hew 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,.0f 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 Hew 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 Bedding) was aware that some surprise had been expressed in the colony that a larger capital bad not been raised to carry on tho undertaking hitherto, but the action of the Corporation could be easdy 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 Hew 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 sum 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 that 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 froma 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 he advised by telegram of the position of affairs in the colony. Colonel Feilding thenread 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 Lis 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 tho settlement of the families now in Feilding on fifty-acre sections along this road line would, with tho completion of the railway line from Foxton, be the chief work to which it was proposed to devote themselves during the autumn and approaching v,-inter. He hoped, then, in another ten months to start a second town, and settlement, seven miles further along the railway line, which would in the meantime be surveyed, and preparations made for the 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 435. 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 bad offers from two parties covering an extent of 8000 acres at £3 per acre, which were still under but -which he feared he should have to refuse in their entirety, as the selections would possibly interfere with the plan of settlement proposed. It was not the intention of the Corporation to encourage anything like land speculation, and it had been and would be their endeavor to promote in every way tho real colonisation of tho block. To be thoroughly successful, this must necessarily be a comparatively slow process; but judging from what they had already
succeeded in doing, before even a passable road had been formed to the settlement, he had no doubt of ultimate success, when the railway provided cheap and easy transit for the immigrants,* and for the timber, from which he expected to realise a large profit, as there was an unlimited quantity of the finest quality of timber growing on the block. At the conclusion of Colonel Feilding’a statement a number of questions were asked and satisfactory answers given, and a vote of thanks to Colonel Feilding for his explanation, and for his earnest endeavors in the work of colonisation, being proposed by Mr. J. C. Crawford,. was heartily responded to. The meetiugthen broke up, after several gentlemen had expressed their desire to take up shares in the Corporation, Mr. Pearce heading the list by an application for 250 shares, and Messrs. W. Johnston and W. Levin for a similar number.
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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4346, 23 February 1875, Page 3
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1,747THE FEILDING SETTLEMENT. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4346, 23 February 1875, Page 3
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