THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1893. HOMESTEAD SETTLEMENTS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2579, 9 November 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1893. HOMESTEAD SETTLEMENTS.

Seven years ago the late John Ballance, when Minister of Lands in the StoutVogel Ministry, practically hushed the cry of the unemployed by settling them on the land. Up to that time it was an article of political faith in Conservative circles, and, indeed, to a wide extent amongst perons who were then passing for Liberals, that the unemployed would not settle on the land; that they were lamp-post loafers, &c., and would rather starve in towns than live in luxury in the country. The late Mr Ballance knew that this was wrong; he knew that of all unpleasant experiences hunger was to 1 man the most terrible, and he knew that these poor people would gladly make a home for themselves anywhere, so long as tiiev c n uid 860 t^e^r wa y to sufficienc y of food "'Witil object of settling these people on the lanu; he instituted the Village Homestead SeU> men ts, under which 1228 settlers were places 011 the laud in about twelve months. He first CL all paid the men so much for erecting a home for themselves, and also for clearng the bush off the land allotted to them, and this ho added to the original cost of the laud, and charged them rent and interest for the total sum. It was, we believe, in the beginning of 1886 that ho inaugurated this scheme, but when .Parliament met in 1887, Captain Sutter, mem her for Gladstone, opened a violent attack on him for his extravagance, and the whole of the Tories, from Auckland to the Bluff, re-echoed the cry. The Christchurch'Press palled him “a conceited prig, whoso administrative incapacity was only equalled by bis ignorance and presumption,” and it was snade to appear that he had wasted i £66,600 or £70,000 in useless work, while in reality he had only spent between £30,000 and £io,opo. Mr Ballance was, literally speaking, pfUoripd for his action; in fact, if he had stolen the money worse language could not have | beep applied to him, but the streets of jj Auckland and other North Island towns were swept of tire lamp-post loafers, who * dWiag oyt theip own livelihood on were ° rpj 10 stout.-Vogel Government the land. .. 0 £ o ift C e, and many q, wore thrown oiu - thought he was poor, s' upid working man • y o j; e doing a groat thing in casting against them. Mr Richardson came i.. as Minister of Lands under the late Sir Harry Atkinson, with the avowed determination to put an end to such schemes, but the work of Mr Ballance succeeded in spite of him, and now, from a report submitted to the Surveyor-General by Mr J. E. March, Superintendent of Settlements, we gather facts which make it plain that the scheme was right in principle and successful in practice. From this we learn that there were 85 settlements, in which 1228 settlers made homes for themselves. This, of course, does not represent the number of people settled on the land, for many of the settlers had families, but wo get no account of them. Some of these threw up their holdings and left, but that was to be expected. Even here, amongst ourselves, in this settled community, we very frequently see farmers selling out and , taking up land elsewhere; in fact, we ■ doubt if oue-twentieth of the original , settlers in this district now remain i

Thoro are now ou the Village Homestead Settlements 900 settlers, occupying 22,677 acres, or an average of 25 acres each — some being larger, some smaller. Of these 22,677 acres 11,084 are under cultivation, and the settlers are getting on well. The total amount advanced to these for dwellings and bushfelling was £24,625 2s 2d, and the annual rent, including interest on money advanced, amounted to £2570 13s lid, or 2s 3£d per acre. Now when this scheme was inaugurated one ©f the great objections raised to it was that the settlers would not pay rent, but this too has been belied by the fact that they are doing so. Mr March says : “ The amount received for the year ending on 31st March last was £2196 7s, but a large portion of the arrears have since been paid.” Thus the total arrears of rent on the year’s working was only £374 but of this sum “ a large proportion has been paid.” The books of the Government close on the 31st of March, being the end of the financial year, and of course anything received since then could not be inserted in the report. The total amount advanced by Government is £24,625 2s 2d, and the total amount received in rent and interest is £10622, 18s, but settlers were in arrears on the 31st March last to the amount of £2346 2s 5d of which sum £3OO has since been paid. Practically, therefore, the total arrears from the beginning to the present time, is only £2OOO, and if that is to be reduced at the rate of £3OO every three months, as has been done since the 31st of March, the day is not far distant when the settlers will have paid up the last farthing. There is a great deal more information in Mr March’s report, but it all goes to show the immense success of the scheme, and we ask now: Is it not better to have these people settled on the land, and digging out their own livelihood, than swelling the cry of the unempl >yed and living on charitable aid 'I We cannot understand the madness which actuates men of property in objecting to this. It is really astonishing that they cannot see that charitable aid comes out of their own pockets, and is a tax on them, and that anything which relieves charitable aid of its burdens improves their own position. However, the above facts show that the homestead settlements have succeeded in spite of them, and are object lessons which go to prove that the settlement of the people on the land is the best way to hush the cry of the unemployed.