The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 778, 12 June 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatgvcr state or persuasion, religious or p&v^al # \# # ■#-..# ; Here shall the Pros? the Pboplb's right maintain, :; ■' Unawed by influence and unbribed by,gain

TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 1877.

The « Herald ' lately, and more r e cently the Thames < Star,' set up a , wail of. lamentation lest the Broomhall settlement at Te Aroha should fall through. For our own part., ; we should consider such an event ; a consummation most devoutly to , be wished for. We have little faith m these monster special-settlement speculations^ and none whatever m the particular one alluded to. Where a private gentleman like Mr Vesey Stewart enlists a number of his friends and dependants, who m turn bring together their own separate circles, and emigrate m a body, forming amongst v themselves the nucleus of a settlement, we can see matter for congratulation both by themselves and the Colony they may select ; but m such projected enterprises as that of Mr Broomhall only loss and ruin to the Colony and the immigrants, and profit alone to the adventurers who trade upon both. We have had a recent instance of this m the case of the Melding special settlements m the provincial district, of Wellington. The discontented immigrants at Halcombe Town held a public indignation meeting on the 18th of last month, at which the Corporation's agent was present by invitation, and those who took part m the proceedings did 'not hesitate to state, broadly that they were induced to come to New Zealand by false representations made to them m England. This is what, on the part of, the unfortunate immigrants and the Colony, is always to be dreaded m these company undertakings. Both suffer, and the projectors 'of the scheme alone profit. If speciaLsettlements are to be encouraged under any new Land Law scheme the Government may bring before the country, it must be settlements on a far less pretentious and speculative scale than such as. have lately occupied the attention of our own Waste Lands Board. The settlement of large blocks by intending emigrants known ,to each other at home, and drawn * together by a common bond of interests for the support of one another as pioneer settlers m a new Colony, is good m principle, and has been successful m practise. Nob so, however, the purchase on easy terms of large tracts of country by English speculators, purchased as speculators on a gojdfield mark out' a mining claim for the purpose of floating a company upon it. What care Mr Broomhall, or the, men who back him, for the after success of the settlement so long as their money, with a handsome profit, is recouped by the sale of the land m lots to the people at home whom they induce to emigrate. What, indeed, if like the unfortunate immigrants at Halcombe Town, they are left to bewail their too confiding trust m the glowing pictures of colonial life set before them by the Company's agents at home 1 . The immigrants belonging to the special settlement located at Halcombo were told, it seems, that they would be provided with constant employment at seven shillings a day, but found themselves lucky m procuringfour aays work a week at five shillings. They were promised a cottage and acre of land for £40 at a rental of seven shillings and sixpence a-week for two years, when it would be their own freehold, and now they find themselves charged the same rent for four years before they can become entitled to claim the freehold. We can imagine the distress and suffering there must be m a community of settlers where, without capital themselves to work the land, there aro no employers of labour, and men are glad to give up two-thirds of their time to earn a bare existence of a pound a-week, out of which there is to pay a first ! charge of seven-and-sixpence a-week ] as rent. In our own part of the : Colony, north of Auckland, we have • two noticeable instances of special ( settlements under either system alluded to—those of Waipu and \ Albertland. The former was an < aggregation of families brought to- ( gether by previous knowledge of ] each other and mutual common m- ]

teresfcs, all of whom were already colonised and fit for the work before them, and the result has been a most unqualified success. The latter was a "heterogeneous collection, all sorts and conditions of men frith the ; single common bond of being total abstainers, such as the members of the Broomhall scheme are proposed to be. A large township was laid out, which to this day is. a township only. m. name. .The. settlers are scattered over all" parts of ■ tlie Colony, save a few- who have . struggled • through great privations, and, indeed/are struggling still". The settlers of Waipu came quietly and unostentatiously, and occupied and cultivated their lands — those of Albertland were made much of, and feted and addressed at a large open air meeting held wL'ere the Supreme Court House now stands, and taught to believe themselves the cream of the Province, as indeed would a shipload of Broomhall's immigrants be, were they to arrive now. m Auckland. Yet the "Waipu special settlement flourished and prospered 'because it contained in' itself the elements of success, while the other, an ill-assorted mass of people ruri togethe? by immigration agents at home at so much per head, has been as noticeable an instance of failure. It is not merely population that the Colony needs, butpopulation of the right kind.