Village Settlement.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2873, 14 April 1888, Page 3

Village Settlement.

(To the Editor.) ■The Hon, G. P. Richardson is reported to have been interviewed by a representative from the Lyttelton Times, on the success of the Village Settlement Scheme, and to have replied to the following effect—" that the plan has certainly been a success in Canterbury, but in the North Island they are anything but a success; and that the cost to the Colony had been about £2O each in Canterbury, whereas, in the North Island, it had been from £OO to £7O apiece for each settler placed on the land. He considered the success in Canterbury as due to the good quality of the land a and nearness to a market, while the " land in the North Island is of a wretched quality, and a hundred miles away from anywhere." The Hon, Mr Richardson, I think, is scarcely correct in his statement regarding the quality of the land in this island, which he describes as wretched. In making a comparison of this kind, he should have borne in mind that in the jftsh the land is timbered, while in Canterbury it is in such a state where the settlements exist that it could be ploughed immediately the settlers took it up. From experience, I can state that a great deal of the land taken up by settlers, particularly in this district, is really good, but there is an element wanting which the lion, gentleman appears to have overlooked, an element which is the principal factor in the success and well-being of the Village or any other small settler, viz., the want oj remunerative employment in the North, as compared with Canterbury, in the immediato vicinity of their holdings, and it is upon this point to my mind that the future success of the Village Settlements depend. An article in the Canterbury Times of April 6th, bears out my assertion that the settlers there (even'on such land as is described as good) are largely danajdent on outside labor to enable tip* to live, and improve their holdings. For instance, the Chertsey Settlement: "The settlers explain "they have not taken anything out " of their " farms" yet, and until they " get their cheques for harvest work " which they have done on the larger " properties in the neighborhood, they • " will not be in a position to go in for " anything that costs money. Eoad " Board, fencing, ploughing, harvest- " ing, and other contracts are held by " the settlers, and carried out satis- " factorily. All are employed for " most of the year, and a good pro- " portion of them are in almost con- " stant work." At Dromore, the settlers are reported as" getting plenty " of outside work, and are well conr , " tented with thoir lot"; and at the Ashburton Settlement, most of the settlers find regular employment in the township of Ashburton, If the Hon. Mr Richardson, as Minister of Lands, would devote some of his time in evolving and carrying out some plan to settle the land adjacent to the tage Settlements in the North, in lerate sized areas, to be occupied by men with capital, then there would he no fear of the success of the Village Settlement scheino even here. I am, etc., N.Z.