GROUP SETTLEMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 191, 15 August 1933, Page 6

GROUP SETTLEMENT.

Tlie era of indiscriminate emigration is over for ever (says a writer in the "Morning Post"). The Groat War not only put a stop to the landless man's quest for the manless land, bnt also created an economic situation which necessitates a strict control of all such movements of population. Too often in the pre-war past unsuitable persons were persuaded to leave England for what they believed to be a new Canaan overflowing with whisky and easy money. The factovy worker, accustomed to an eight-hours day ai.d leisure under the gas lamp, was frequently a failure. He could not, in many cases, adapt himself to an utterly unfamiliar environment in which." initiative is a necessity, and at certain seasons of the year everybody must work at high pressure from sunrise to sunset. So he drifted into the "shack towns" outside the cities, or, as a "returned empty" encouraged by Socialist politicians, gave some land of. plenty beyond the seas a bad name. In future, all such unsuitable types must be excluded, and it is generally admitted that some form of group settlement must bo adopted to secure the best results. After all, the idea of the group settlement is about as old as the hills. Indeed, the actual Canaan was settled in that way, and many English place names, those crystals of history, show that the lands gained by conquest were similarly occupied by the inhabitants of "ham's" and "ton's." From Park Larie to the St. Lawrence is a lonsr, long- way, but the two localities are linked together by the self-same system of utilising riverside lands. Thus are French-Canadian farms in the Laurentian country, consisting of long ribbons of land, each with a narrow frontage on the river, where the habitant built his house so as to be near his neighbours when the day's wor,k was done. Many centuries ago. Thames-side settlements were arranged according , to the same sociable plan. That is why some of the houses in Park. Lane stand back from the other*, the inland boundaries of the vibbon-farms having , formed a broken line, and the occurrence of such names an "Long Acre" in London 5= yet another proof. The new group settlement, like these very old .ones, will be a farming; estate ,with a village [for its cor<i of eoeial life.