GROUP SETTLEMENTS

Shannon News, 19 April 1927, Page 4

GROUP SETTLEMENTS

WEST AUSTRALIAN SCHEME. "REMARKABLE EXPERIMENT." The report on Group Settlements m Western Australia, written by Mr. W. i Bankes Amcry, C.8.E., the British Government Representative for Migration in Australia, who'visited a number of group settlements says: "The principle of group settlement is that several families from the same town or country are selected for settlement on adjoining blocks of land, in the expectation that their common associations will afford a bond of union and prove an antidote to the isolation and loneliness of life in the bush. Thus there is the Leeds Group, the Devon Group, the Cornwall Group etc. At the outset, the,work of clearing the land is undertaken by the group workingTtogether under the direction of foremen, holdings being alloted individually as the land is cleared. Payment i 3 made for sustenance while the work of clearing is in progress, but this has not been found iatisfactory. Families are provided with shacks pending .the erection of permanent, cottages on their holdings. Up to date about 1600 cottages have been provided for 2273 settlers. The farms cost not less than £ISOO with stock arid equipment, but it is provided, under an agreement dated February 9 1923 that no settler should be charged more than.£looo. Interest on the farm-costs is being charged at Gl per cent. It is proposed eventually to charge interest for ten years and subsequently instalments of both capital and interest. About 32,000 acres are under crop, the soil is veryfertile and the country beautiful.

A distinctive feature of the scheme is that only families with at least three children are admitted. There are at present 1666 British families, of whom 1290 were assisted under the Empire Settlement Act, 1923. Among settlers interviewed by Mr. Amery were policemen from London and Leeds, a bricklayer, a baker, two cabinetmakers, a lifeguardsman, an artilleryman, a Royal Navy Officer, a piano maker, a Government explosives inspector, a signwriter, several engineers, a gas inspector, a chauffeur, several butchers, a railway detective, a laboratory assistant, a greengrocer, several sailors, a printer's assistant,, a railway fireman, a professional footballer, a platelayer, two legal clerks, a dock labourer, a grocer's assistant, an insurance broker, an insurance clerk, a painter, a crane driver, and a motor-body' builder.