MR STUART MENTEATH ON VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2376, 1 October 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

MR STUART MENTEATH ON VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

For tlie information of our reader? who have not perused his pamphlet, we have taken the following extracts from the printed address of .Mr A. A. Stuart Mcuteath, barrister-at-law of the Inner Temple, who is contesting the seat for Te Aro in Wellington. In this publication of 1” pages, Mr Menteath makes one of the most trenchant and well-sustained attacks on the fallacies of the StoutVogel Government we have yet seen. He also enters upon a general and very thoughtful review of the economic errors of the whole public works policy, as administered from its inception, together with its baneful influence on the political morality ot the people and legislature: I may here refer t*» the village settlement “fad." for which the present Government hate defied the authority of Parliament. Tnis transgression alone should go far to aiieniate the confidence of the country. As well may we stick clothespegs in the ground and expect them to grow, as hope to derive benefits as a nation from this State nursery of small farmers. The history of the colony furnishes ns with the results of similar attempts al, Ivaramea, at .TaeksniTs H iv and elsewhere : all have ended in disastrous failure. Except in the immediate neighbourhood of a large town, a few acres of land, however skillfully cultivated, will not .-upplv the wants of a family of working-people accustomed to the colonial rate of wages. [u France, and many other part, of the Continent, many families live upon verv small fauns. But how do they live? Tin y raste nv'at once or twice a year; their food con-i-ts of coarse bread and vegetables, with a little sour wire-; tliev go barefoot, and live in dwellings tL which we would hesitate to consign a pig. j Tlie current wage is from one to thre.- | francs (say lOd to I’s (»d) per diem. It is j only hy the most grinding economy and continuous toil that they can eani even j this meagre scale of diet for their fanii:i-s. j Even if our “village settlers" iveie tin- j most iinlnstiious of men, even if the-.- , had the necessary training, tiieir life j : would be one of perpetual penury; for, at j the pre-cut prices of produce in the | i colony, they could not hope, on the .-craps ! ; of land, to earn anything like the wages j i of a day labourer in tolerable steady em- j j ployment. | , But who are these village settlers? Why. i , the unemployed of the great towns, some I j of them deserving and unfortunate; but I many, I fear, flic refuse of onr labouring j j population. These will allow themselves I j and their families to Ire “placed upon the j laud” only so lung as the Government wi!! j i

i !<■*>* t;j**m t * th-fr >ni th»i I i* .*!. i • u \\ :i- u *(; »v(*rn--111-ll’ r* t - ;11 v f-.r w-»rk, --or xi'A V.!:; j-i-f-r I a(H | «]•• *if vi *'j- t w::-. . .■}, tnt.ibK* •'tnj ;:j !}«.* <Jf-<rv v. h-r*-th** ,1.. i- n -h nV of ti‘ ‘k n: »h- i \ j-tv tv* 1- ..f “hm*v* II i.' :tvJ *’h »rj? Aid 1 •‘■''l. ( vi-i t-i A<*r. in ; r.i*.♦*«! Ir t ~-ri: *• ** tv* -i-*k ;,irl n**edv, 5U a-v-rlrjwith •! *t,*p* A “■ i:; «•'••!? W•»-31 in.iy ’ m* :r: j;,in th -;r -;.•.♦•.■»*, ;it th* njMtijy «.f tVt *h**v j ini* 1 i.it.-- ;jr*>Av i ’ij*m th- 1 ivl f..r tlw ' * »J»]» -j( «f tV ’•‘d'a .di f Vl hj-l!*. r»S‘-* an* 5 al- • th•* < h^t'iiu* ; hj> <!i th— ill'J’]' f ri'* !' t"-sip. j |•'t :i-- r * of i« ••ruTn-:it \»Vr< in ; I, tfi*- profits •1 in.ijinf.urtur-r% ?■» i*sj»•? ’•.** th** prop j rl!*'' of tii** Th**r- i- vast !< i'.\vr in a ii.«:n*»! A~k t sj •.VTkniij-jjian !•» pay a }» »*i an*! !i«* vty that (he I‘ltd -hoiild h*.trth*’ imithni; bit talk t*» ■ Inin -*1 a or 11 i-ettlinfc I (ii** |»*‘i*j»i** tip in th** land.** **r iiiraffin? l*r»i imiu-t'i**'/* and b*r will cheerfully permit (hj it n»ad' nny iw made t.» th* ..r (h.it di-trict mij. |H< iimv Iw s*il»'idi/.ed in village i-eltlem-nt-.