A BIG LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1910, Page 6

A BIG LAND SETTLEMENT SCHEME.

We do not know who Sir Reginald Enock, described in one of our London messages yesterday as "the traveller," may be, or where he has travelled, but his mind has been busy to some purpose with the affairs of the Empire, and the excellence of the suggestion which he has made in a paper read before the Royal S6ciety of Arts lays the whole Empire under a debt of obligation. Trade and commerce are in Sir Reginald Enock's opinion "an insufficient means of livelihood for the British people, nor are they alone an adequate basis for Imperial unity." The contrast between the millions of people without land at the heart of the Empire, and the millions of acres of land without people in its outlying parts is a commonplace which has long since ceased to move the nation and it seemi to oe content to trust to the chapter of accidents to enable it to muddle through a doubl» danger which rational management should be able to convert into a double source of strength. Thert is really a third element in the problem. Capital as well as population is needed to develop the great waste spaces of the Empire, and here again there is a plethora in the Old Country) of the very thing that the daughter States I require. Sir Reginald Enock approaches the problem primarily from the standpoint of th» f*xc«Hencs of th* investment offered to tho public bodies of Great,

Britain. He urges that "every municipality and urban district in the United Kingdom should acquire an area of free land in the overseas dominions, to hold in perpetuity as a heritage for its people, developing the land for their needs, and creating new sources of industry and revenue." Except in Canada, there is not a great amount of good land to be had for nothing nowadays, nor will it be easy to get the local bodies of the United Kingdom to pioneer in such a movement. But that there are good openings for profitable investment is undeniable, and under sound management there would be a good deal more in the business than philanthropy and Imperialism. Sir Reginald Enock is wise to urge that the experiment should be pioneered by business men. "An association of London City men should," he suggests, "lead the way — secure a large area of colonial land, raise a working capital, and form a new and valuable permanent property for the benefit of London." His idea apparently is that such an association should act as trustees for some public body of the metropolis, for he contemplates the benefit as being passed on. Such questions as these, however, are details. The main thing is that Sir Reginald Enock. has opened up the discussion of a great and momentous ques* tion from a novel point of view, and that if the discussion is widely spread and worthily sustained an immense benefit may result to the Empire. The gravest of Australia's problems is presented by her immense Northern Territory, with an area exceeding that of France and Germany combined and the population of a third-rate New Zealand borough. Port Darwin under existing conditions presents an open ahd undefended door to an immense and practically untenanted area of fertile land, and an enemy will walk in by that open door some day if the gap is not filled. The construction of a' transcontinental railway tb Port Darwin — a matter as to which the Deakin-Cook Government has shown itself , deplorably weak — and the peopling of this vast territory are as essential conditions of Australia's safety as her navy or her citizen army. The cost of the undertaking, which is estimated at £4,500,000, is no light matter for the finances of the Commonwealth, but to construct it on the basis of a land grant payment to the contractors would make comparatively easy work of it, as it would largely finance itself. In such, a scheme suitable reservations could be made along the line for colonies such as Sir Reginald Enock suggests, and if they were taken up they would be of more value to the Commonwealth than a loan of the £4,500,000 free of interest. Of course, nobody supposes that a few hundred .of the "dead-beats" of Whitechapel could be planted in the Northern Territory and convert it into a smiling land of plenty ipso facto. The utmost caTe would need to be exercised in. the selection of the colonists, but the fact that British capital would be invested in the enterprise, and that the selection would lie with its representatives, would be a sufficient guarantee that there would be no dumping of Britain's refuse upon Australia after the cheerful fashion that prevailed a century ago. The whole question bristles with difficulties, but the difficulties are not so great as the danger of neglecting them, and Sir Reginald Enock is to be thanked for the striking way in which he has drawn public attention to the subject.