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SMALL FARM SETTLEMENTS.

TO THE JSDITOB DF'THE'NEW ZEAtiitfD TIMES.- I Sir, — Your correspondent, Mr/L. Johnstone, takes me to task/ in your issue of; the Ilth‘ instant, for making the sweeping fstatempnt that all the 'special-'settlements, 1 with the'exception 1 of ! Katikaii,' ‘were*' prd'ctical ’failures. lam glad to find; ffCm his letter, that theselj-' tlements he refers to 1 , (Mauriceyille 1 and Bketalmua,in the Seventy-Mile Bush)/ are likely to turn out suooe'sse,s, andgreat praise is - doubtless*'due 1 to'those Scandinavians. \yhf> liave displayed' siri much 1 pluck-anil energy jhgrap- i pling with the'difficulties’enunierated by Mr., Johnstone, . But granting all this, ,itj, docs .not prove that the;,settlement, as'a special - 'small farm settlement, is not, a practical failure. It appears that up to June, 1876, a 'sum of £6465 ss. 6d. had been spent by the Government upon these-settlements, and Mr. 'Johnstone informs us that last year a further sum of £2500 has been spent ilpon 1 them. The question is not whether-this , money has been well op ill expended, but could these settlers have remained upon .their/ land unless this expenditure had been going on ? My idea of a successful special settlement is, that ,it should be self-supporting, from, the first; and this has been, the .case, with the Katikati Settlement, as, is proved by the satisfactory position it" is *in at present, and: the; fact that since their arrival in the colony the Katlkati. settlers■ have,not received, one penny,of Government'aid.. I apprehend that “small farm settlements” are not formed for roadmaking purposes, .but for settling: on and cultivating the land, and the success of, any such settlement must ,be, estimated by the quantity of la'd brought under the plough, and not by the number of miles of road they, may have formed at the Government expense. It the latter is to be the test, the-settlements should not be termed “ small farm special settlements,” but , “special road-making settlements.” It would be useful to know, and I have no doubt the public would like to know, the practical results, in the shape of bona fide occupation and - cultivation of all the special settlements.- In my previous letter I gave the returns* of three—Karainea, Jackson’s Bay, and. Katikati,—which prove, in. my, opinion, that the two .former ~are , absolute failures. The* Karameaj settlers since their arrival have had, public money to,the extent of nearly £2OO per family divided amongst them. .This , may perhaps have been spent in road-making. . The Katikati settlers also require roads and bridges. In their case, however, they have to construct them themselves. ' There was a: voluminous and able report laid before the House last session, purporting , to show the position of the Feilding Settlement, but, strange to-say, it-wasaltogether silent as to practical result, with , the exception of roadmaking. What the public would like to know is—How many of the emigrants, ostensibly introduced by,the Colonists Aid,Corporation; are now bona fide settled on their land, and how much they have cultivated, together with the amount of public money expended, within the four corners of the Feilding purchase. I have 1 little doubt this settlement * will be a great success,, and, will return a..handsome dividend to the fortunate shareholders and directors of the'company; but this' is hardly what the public expect from a special settle; inent. Those who have had no experience in conducting an immigration agency are under the impression that there is no difficulty in indue; iug the small farmer class to emigrate to this colony. Sir Julius Vogel even so little realised the difficulties that he told me in London, that with the inducement held out I could clear the whole country side. There never was a greater delusion. It is easy enough to induce penniless persons to emigrate, in fact, one of my chief duties was declining to receive applications from those that X considered ineligible ; but with land-pwners or holders it is a very different thing, they are, for the most part, en-: tirely ignorant of the world, and sentimentally prejudicial in favor of the little spot they call home, and you have to convince them that it will be to their advantage to sell their land, which may possibly have been occupied by their fathers, grandfathers, and great-grand-fathers before them, and take a three months’sea voyage to a country they have barely heard of except in connection with cannibalism and all sorts of horrors. To induce people of this class to emigrate (and they are the only class, in my opinion, likely to form a successful special settlement), great patience and perseverance is needed. My difficulties were increased a bun-; dred-fold by the hostility of the London office.: One large capitalist that I had induced to sell out of the army and join the party, was so .discouraged by- the reports ho received at 7, : Westminster Chambers, that he not only de-: dined to proceed, but also cut my acquaintance. The strongest arguments were used to; induce Mr. Stewart to withdraw from the im-* dertaldng. He was told there was not an acre of land in the whole colony—certainly not in the Province of Auckland, except in the immediate vicinity of the towns—that was worth one pound an acre ; and an appointment was also made for him to meet a well-known-large landowner from Auckland, who was to have told him that my description of the country was false. (Fortunately he missed the appointment). AH this so staggered Mr. Stewart that he determined on inspecting the country for himself before bringing out his party. In his first letter to mo from New Zealand, he says, “I can never sufficiently thank you for advising me to take this step, and for your true and accurate description of this magnificent country.” It will be easily understood that what with all this opposition, together with the false statements spread by agents for other colonies and countries, and the natural prejudices of the people themselves, it was by no means an easy task carrying the Katikati emigration scheme to a successful issue—l am, &c. H. W. Farnall. Wellington, March 12.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18780314.2.17

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5294, 14 March 1878, Page 3

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,006

SMALL FARM SETTLEMENTS. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5294, 14 March 1878, Page 3

SMALL FARM SETTLEMENTS. New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5294, 14 March 1878, Page 3

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