A BACKBLOCKS TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 87, 13 April 1927, Page 6

A BACKBLOCKS TRAGEDY.

Wider issues than the plight of the Xgaroma settlers will come before the Dominion Land Conference which opened in Auckland to-day, but, we hope, nothing so pitiful. The revelations made in the articles by the "Star's" representative who visited Xgaroma, which are supported by a report of the Farmers' Union organiser published to-day, will have come as a shock to our readers. We can recall nothing of the kind that is so tragic. Here is a whole community of farmers that is not only in a hopeless financial position, but is actually without adequate food and clothing. Starvation is not a thing one associates with New Zealand farm life. One takes it for granted that even the poorest farmer's family has enough to eat. Some of these Xgaroma victims are half starved. The plight of the women and children on these cold uplands, with winter coming 011, should especially appeal to the conscience of the more fortunate. As is pointed out in our correspondence columns to-day, the poor in the towns have at their doors the State's charitable aid and private charity, and if they are sick they are given free treatment. The Xgaroma settlers, only half-fed, and shivering in the cold, isolated in the backblocks with no prospect of improved conditions, cannot call in such aid. It is alleged that when these people were settled there it was known that the country was "cattle sick," and it is almost certain that most of the money spent there will have to be written off. These two considerations are, in themselves, sufficient to make the Xgaroma settlement important. They are another entry in the debit side of our land settlement ledger, and some stern questions will be asked about them. They will make a deeper impression than columns of figures about exports, production and prices. Just now, however, the public will be more concerned about the condition of these struggling families and what can be done for them iu the immediate future.