GROUP SETTLEMENT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 187, 28 October 1927, Page 13

GROUP SETTLEMENT

AUSTRALIAN METHODS CO-OPERATIVE EFFORT (-Special to THE SUE.) MASTERTON. To-day Some interesting observations «-n group settlement and other settlement schemes in West Australia were made this morning by Colonel C. H. Limb, a resident of that State, who has been here on a visit. In West Australia a “group settlement’’ of British immigrants lias been organised on a much bigger and bolder scale than has yet been attempted m New Zealand. The immigrants. Mr. Lamb stated, came out in groups of 40, all members of the group being drawn from the same district in ihe Old Country. Each group of 40 under a supervisor undertook the breaking in of a block of virgin country. The group workers as an organised body, concentrating on one holding at a time. Part of the holding was cleared, a cottage erected and reading was done. A ballot was then held and the winner took the section. He was not. however, released from his obligations to the group, but must continue to work eight hours n day in helping to break in other holdings until all the members of the group had been provided for. Each member of the group was paid a sustenance allowance of ten shillings a day on obtaining their holdings. Some of the settlers worked from daylight to dark and so were enabled even while still doing their eight hours a day with the group, to make good headway in improving the land, while the whole cost of development was loaded on the land. The settlers then have an opportunity of acquiring th ir holdings by instalment payments, spread over a considerable term of years. The scheme is not yet at a siitT'ciently advanced stage to allow of .:n explanation of results, but in some cases values, based on development costs, are rather high. Much of the country opened for group settlement is heavily timbered, and the cost of clearing and breaking in this class of land ranges from £ls to £4O an acre.