STATE FARMS. MR CLARKE S SCHEME. Auckland, September 4.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 401, 11 September 1889, Page 5

STATE FARMS. MR CLARKE S SCHEME. Auckland, September 4.

A bPKCi\L meeting of the Knights of Labour was held at the lecture-room of the V.M.C.A. last evening. There was a fair attendance, and the Rev. J. S. Hill occupied the chair. The object of the moeting was to hear Mr Clarke explain his state farm scheme, which on a previous occasion he had brought under the notice of Sir Harry Atkinson. Mr Clarke made the assertion that it was the duty of the State to provide for all who ai-e not able to provide for themselves. He said that Henry George proposed nationalisation of the land, and, no doubt, that was the main thing required l&c the alleviation of existing- disfciess. He then went into figures to show that State farms worked under his scheme would nob only induce people to settle on the land, bub al&o leave a handsome profit. He estimated that the cost of farms, including 20,000 acres for five years, would be £758,521 6s 8d ; that by placing 400 families on the land eich year tor hve successive years and assisting them to the value of £50 each ; by establishing a syotem of cooperative stores, there would be some thousands of pounds a year saved in the distribution of charitable aid. He proposed to givo each family 100 acres of land, and to give them a fair start with for each family 2 calves, 10 sheep, 2 pigs, 10 fowls, 10 chickens, 4 geese, 4 turkeys, and flour, tea, etc., up to a total value of £12 Is. For the £50 advanced they were to pay 5 per cent, interest, vhich in five years would total £15,000, and rent for five years £30,000. Ho estimated that these families would produce in the five years about £100,000 worth of saleable articles, and proposed that these should be purchased by a manager whose duty itwould be to find a market. Ho also expected that the land in five years wou'd be improved to the extent of £1 per acre, giving £20,000, and chat on the whole there would be a total saving, or imptovement in the colony' of £733,295, in that peiiod. Mr Clarke also argued that the Government, instead of spending thousands in immigration as they had done in the past, should buy up all the available land and offer it to anyone in smail blocks at five per cent, on its value on the first valuation for perpetual lease ; that immigrants taking up this land should receive immediate employment and wages for the first six or twelve month?, with the option of eventually taking up farms on the same terms as ordinary settlers. Mr Clarko went into details at considerable length, and at the conclusion of his speech, some discussion took place on the probabilities and possibilities of success that the scheme involved.