WANTED NEW ZEALANDERS

Evening Star, Issue 15481, 1 May 1914, Page 10

WANTED NEW ZEALANDERS

TO GO TO RHODESIA,

[Special to the Stab.]

WELLINGTON, April 30. Mr H. W. Kempster, special commissioner for the British South Africa Company, and who comes accredited by the Colonial Office, is at present in Wellington on behalf of the powerful company whom he represents,: they practically control Rhodesia. Mr Kempster has been entrusted with a commission to inquire into the systems of land settlement which are in force in various parts of the British Dominions, and also to glean knowledge concerning trade conditions between the Oversea Dominions and the Old Country. This information is being collected in view of a big forward land-settlement scheme that has been propounded for Rhodesia by the presidait of the company (Dr Leander Starr Jameson) and others.

Mr Kempster informed a reporter that in seeking to open up this vast country there could be no suggestion of trade rivalry, as the products of Rhodesia differed materially from the staple exports of both Australia and New Zealand. The position was that they had a country consisting of 450,000 square miles, with a white population of only 32,000, and it was desired to frame a scheme by which men of limited capital would be induced to settle in the country and develop its vast resources. He had been in Australia for four months, during which time he travelled 15,000 miles, and greatly regretted that he could not devote more than a limited time to New Zealand; but he had made arrangements to leave Auckland for Vancouver on May 8 by the Marama, and so would have to get the bulk of his information here from official sources, which had been advised of his coming. "What I want to do," said Mr Kempster, "is to ascertain what the New Zealand land-settlement system is, and then personally interview the man on the land to ascertain how the system works out in practice. I followed that plan in Australia, and actually spent very little time in the cities. We want to induce a good type of settler, and will be prepared to help him materially; but we do not want the man who is altogether without capital, because the conditions in Rhodesia are entirely different from what they are either in Australia or New Zealand. That is to say, a man going on the land in Rhodesia would not require to do the slogging work that be may have to do here for lack of unskilled labor. We want the man with small capital-r-a minimum, say, of £SOO. Most of the men who have already gone out there and done well have had capital varying from £i;000 to £2,000. If settlers come with a small amount of capital the company will be prepared, under the new scheme, to offer facilities to take up land on exceptionally. easy terms, and also to grant assistance by means of an agricultural bank."