THE KARDELLA VILLAGE SETTLEMENT.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8738, 9 March 1894, Page 3

THE KARDELLA VILLAGE SETTLEMENT.

___v HOW THEY SETTLE THE UNEMPLOYED IN VICTORIA. J.P. in the Australasian. " I was out of work for eighteen months before coming here, aud I can tell you it often very nearly broke our hearts to hear the youngsters "crying for the food w« could not give them. Had hard work here? I should rather think so. Why, when I first walked down here from Kardella Sration you cculd not see on either hand for 20yds—it »>*as aa dense as that bit over there —but we were determined to make a try, and we are getting a bio comfortable now. E ich family has a snug little two-roomed house; w_ call tbem hats, but as soou as they get a bit of green over them and a few flower* they will ba as horae-like as you couM wish for. And each man has a half acre of land round his house under cultivation — cabbages, beans, peas, spuds, turnips, and nearly everything else you could mention, which go a long way to help to keep the wolf from the door. I have eight or ten fowls and a pig, aud I hope to see a couple of sides of bacon in the chimney before the winter comes on. You think we have done very well. Oh, that'a not all. But there ia the manager, aud he wiil show you what else has been do c." The manager, who turned round just then, came up, and, having explained my mission, he invited mc to have a cup of tea and a hot, home-made scone, which hospitality I readily accepted, having journeyed from Melbourne ou a line which will become proverbial for Us want of refreshment accommodation, unless iudeed the rising Australian has a relish for buns, peanuts, and oranges, brought to the carriage window by a youth who, if he had ventured to wish you "good morning," would hardly have dared to add the wellknown advertising chestnut about a certain soup, for fear of your retaliation. After all, when one ha* to catch a train at PrinceVbridge at half-past six on a wet cold moruiug, cold weak tea and raiu-sod-dt-u buns do noS make a very appetising ten o'clock meal, and even though you may wear a bit of blue ribbon, your hand instinctively rises to hide for a short time that badga of purirlod humanity, and if you had only paid your last half-year's Insurance premium, you would risk your limbs, aud the chance of losiugyour train, among that moving mass of coal trucks, and make a bee-liae for the Korumburra Hotel. After having refreshed myself from the kind hands of the manager's wife, we started, on a tour cf inspection. The manager, who was a singularly versatile and interesting man, explained to mc that tbe home of the settlement stood iv thirtyfive acres of cleared laud, aud, as before stated, each family has a two-roomed house and half an acre of ground, which the men cultivate in what he termed "their own time," i.e., before 7.30 a.m. aud af tor 5 p.m. The houses, wblcb titand well apart, present a very pleasing picture to the traveller on the railway. Each house has a water-tank for drinking purposes excavated close by, containiug up- j wards of 800 gallons; some men have added an additional tank, or eveu two, in their spare time. We then viewed some of the houses, where the neat, briarht i appearance of the women lends a charm to j the already grand and imposing Gippsiand scenery, and it would surprise any of our suburban amateur horticulturists to see I what had beeu done in four months by these necessarily tired and weary settlers in their off houis. The work between 7.30 and 5 is done on co-operative principles, I the manager directing and carrying out the wishes of the settlers which ware ! formed at the previous committee meeting which meetings are held three or more times a week. This work has been to get under cultivation some ten acres of l.nd, iv which are growing in all the luxuriance of a virgin soil cabbages, beans, peas, beet, i &c, intended for sale. Raspberries, apples, plums and cherry cuttings have beeu planted, and many kinds of feed plants aud fodder for propagation. This little Satch, which only a few months ago waa a cnaemass of bush,scrub and undergrowth now presents co the eye a pleasing picture of what may be effected by men who lend their hearts and hauds to the work, directed by one of their number and by a thoughtful methodical and co-operative system. At the side of this has been constructed a dam, which holds upwards of 20,000ga1. of water; and further up the «l<_e of the hill an enclosure has been fenced for poultry. Next we visited one of the. settlers, to whom the care of an incubator had been entrusted, and on examination of the eggs they showed every sign of a successful result. 'From there I was taken to see a large chicken-house, which bad been built with a vi.w to rearing poultry during the winter months; and on one aide had been placed a home-made foster mother on the latest and most improved principle. I may mention that the incubator had also been made by the settlers. We now mounted the hill, and as we advanced on every hand timber might be seen, rung or felled; and on descending the other side a gully was disclosed to view, which when cleared and under cultivation must prove of great value. We now ascended another hill, and came upon a few acres of grass, upon which were feeding four flue young bullocks, which prove a great assistance to the settlers iv hauling aud removing fallen timber. Over the crown of this hill we came upon five acres of fine potatoes, ready for digging as soon as tbe weather should be propitious. This land was remarkably clean and well cleared, as was also three acres of maize and three of turnips. The settlers have a mutual store, from which their wants have beeu supplied up to the amount of their weekly allowance. This store has proved of immense value in providing the men with provisions at the lowest wholesale prices and a few shillings make a wonderful show when spent over this economic counter, where 10% represents the advance on the net invoice price. Were this few shillings spent in the nearest township it would be sorry fare and short -commons for the ensuing week, besides the always ready temptation of "just having oue nip." When it is;considered that all thi3 work has beeu done by thirty-five men, in a little over four months, besides cutting 280 acres of scrub ready for the fire—the majority of which men have had little or no experience in agriculture, and whose tools and implements muat of necessity be of a very meagre kind and quantity—and that they have had to erect thirty-eight houses, store, butcher's, blacksmith's, and baker'« shops, while they have been prevented from coutinued labour in outlying paddocks by the unusually wet season, it will surprise many who have experienced the magnitude of the task of reclaiming land from Dame Nature in her sternest mood, to find that these men have beeu able to do so much, and it must, at the same time, teach the lesson that the village settlement scheme would prosper if only carried out under right principle?. The one great factor of success, where the reclamation of the land is of so >•■/. nbborn a nature, must be co-operation. What thirty odd men have achieved in unison would have been absolutely impossible for one man to have done a thirtieth part of. Oa amending the Village Settlement Act, the Government will have to recognise the association rather than the individual, and will have to invest a certain amount of authority in one of their murnber (who may be appointed by tbe vote of the settlers) to subdue the necessarily unruly element which must always be found when two or three men are gathered together. In the case of this settlement, the manager has only moral suasion to enforce his authority, and had not the men had the object lesson to learn of other bodies of men who are always pulling different ways, bis tabk, which now requires aU the diplomacy And knowledge of hum&u nature which he.c_n call to hie assistance, would certainly have been an impossibility aud a failure. Where a body of men are working with a common object in view, it is absolutely necessary that there should be some one with authority, and it is to this point that the Government will have to give their serious consideration, and will have to devise a plan by which the member selected to take command will have the strongest support and sympathy. Another way that these settlers can be helped is to give them the advice and counsel of men whom the colony have in their service, and although, no doubt, these specialists are at the service of the settlers on application, yet the Government should provide for them to pay periodical visits, when tbey might give these men the advice and instruction which the colony pays them to distribute. Again, the settlers have expressed the opiuion that a Board of Advice would be of great service. Such a Board might be formed of practical men io the district, who are sufficiently patriotically inclined to give their services gratuitously. It will at once appeal to the thinking mind that these settlers have sufficient to overcome without adding any further obstacles their inexperience might produce, while a kindly word of advice ana encouragement would tend much to make the scheme a, success.