SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1894. WHAT A SETTLER COSTS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4855, 19 October 1894, Page 2

SECOND EDITION Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1894. WHAT A SETTLER COSTS.

Accokmxh to the Hon, Mr Ormoiul, a very matter-of-fact and trustworthy authority, the cost to the colony of settling 317 selectors at Cheviot has been £B2l per selector, At Pomalinkn, the work has been done a little cheaper, This estate of 7,266 acres, acquired at it cost of £IB,OOO, is accommodating, oris intended to accommodate, 29 leaseholders, each one of whom will only cost the colony £605. If we take an average of both settlements, the cost persettler is but £713, and the question may be asked if a Liberal Government ought not to do the thing a, little cheaper. No doubt all the settlers are men of tho right colour, anil are very valuable ami desirable persons, but it seems a little dear for the colony to have to pay, or ijo into debt, to the time of £713 for each and all of them. There aro a hundred thousand persons in the colony, each of whom has an equal claim with the 317 Chevioters and the 29 Pomahakas for Government favours. If thoso are to-be provided for on the same scale, it will take at least seventy millions of nionoy to place them, There is a doubt, perhaps, whether even our present strong Government will be able to borrow seventy millions, and this is to be regretted, for why, in a distribution of Government favours, should any man be left out in the cold, Every man is a Liberal who wants aGovernment advance of £721 and it is absurd to supposetliatwhat ono true Liberal gets another should be denied. Still it is evident that the Government must come, down off I their perch, They cannot borrow seventy millions, but supposing they can get seven, it isat once apparent that they ought to reduce the cost of putting people on land. On a seven million basis they can only afford to manufacture settlers at £72 per head, The Cheviot and Pomahaka ai'liclo evidently costs ten times 100 much. Tho Colony cannot stand " plunging" of this kind, It is somewhnt curious too that tho settler manufactured at tho extravagant price wo have named is after all a weak ricketty article, not warranted to wear and liablo to break at any moment, We should have imagined that when the Hon, John McKenzie turned out one of these spick and span settlers ho would start him with good land for the money, But no, both the Cheviot and Pomahaka prodigies are endowed with cold sour land, which is unfitted for close settlement. A dunderheadeil Minister lias secured dunilerheailed settlers, and the Colony .has made a bad bargain, ■ ■- ■ ■.