DISTRESS IN THE VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2972, 1 August 1891, Page 3

DISTRESS IN THE VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

TIIU June number of Justice contains a letter from :i settler in the Village Settlement of TaUahn, Mongonui, which gives a simple but withal p.thetic description of his troubles, and wli.it is likely to be experienced by those who go upon land without sufficient capital. After expressing his approval of Justice, the writer says "If you could scnii a delegate up liete, he would find misery and hardship of a most appalling nature. Our settlers are leaving oue by one, koine: unab'e to grapple with the demon poverty; all Imvo suffered, but particularly the women, through semistarvation and misery. Those who take up land without, any capital make a ere at mistake, this was our unfortunate position. Those who were in the position of having ploughs, cows, sheep, and a horse, have done much better. If you grow any excess, there is no sale, not a shillings worth, All the cash I have had for twelve months has not exceeded £3. Bread I have not seen for 13 woeks, meat we scarcely ever see. Tea is a luxury not thought of, wo make what we call coffee from burnt corn ; for the last 13 weeks we have lived on corn, which we take to a mill three miles off to grind. I have one spado,and could use five. Boots and shoes are indulged in by ray eldest daughter nnd myself, my wife and the remainder of the family have to go barefooted. The want of clothing is our worst form of evil, m we cannot send the children to school, so they are in danger of growing up wild and ignorant; my second daughter of fifteen has teen to achonl with only a frock on next her skin. I sometimes wonder what lam to do. I have a lot of timber I have got ready for a house, but I have no tools or nails. To get a few penco our children gather fumnis, frequently having to go long distances to get a fiOlb bag full, which dries down to about 121b of fungus. The nearest Btoro is ten miles off, nr.d we get 2d per lb for it (in stores). When we read of the bargains nnd so much cheap produce, it makes us almost desperate. More of our Hettlers would leave if they could get away anil knew where to go to. I often think if the Auckland public knew half of our hardships they would remember us and help us." While deeply sympathising with the writer and others similarly situated, we must confess that wo are not surprised at such a result. Knowing as most old colonists do, the hardships and difficulties which necessarily surround land settlement —even under favourable circumstances, and when undertaken by those brought up to a country life—we are not surprised to find that the village settlers, pickcd at haphazard from the unemployed of all trades and located upon indifferent land in inaccessible districts, are unable to make both ends meet, or even live in a decent manner. A great outcry (chiefly, we believe, for political purposes) has been made of late against those who own land, as though the unimproved land in a new country was of great value—the important factor being carefully overlooked that in the vast majority of cases large amounts of capital had to be expended before these lands were capable of supporting either live stock or human beings. It is only by such lessons aa the one to be read between the lines of the Takahu village settler's letter that the inexporiencod reader learns that land, even when combined with labour, is valueless without a given amount of capital. In this connection, land-taxing agitators will have no cause for reproach if capital is not diverted into every other channel before that of improving the land, fur they have certainly worked hard towards that mid.