Mr Rees in England.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 209, 16 October 1888, Page 3

Mr Rees in England.

The ** Colonies and India ” gives a good dea; of space to an account of Mr W. L. Bees and his scheme of colonisation.. It states ;— *■ Mr Bees has been a resident in various parts of the Australian colonies and New Zealand for thirty-seven years, and has had rare oppor. tunities for studying colonial life in all its phases, from bullock-driving up to politics, and from law to cricket, being an old Victorian Eleven man, and a cousin of the champion, W. G. Grace. He was for some time a'member of the House of Representatives in the latter colony, is a lawyer by profession, and during the whole of the years of his manhood has occupied a prominent place in the discussion aud settlement of local public affairs.” The paper goes on to say—“As a practical method of testing his suggestions for the improvement of the present congested state of the English population, Mr Rees has formulated his scheme of co-operative colonisation. Proposals are to be submitted to the English co operative bodies, trades and labor councils, and benefit societies, The capital will ba raised and assistance obtained from the following sources The co-operative bodies, trades and labor councils, friendly losiriies, tunptrgtiw org«niE»tieai, and the

general public, including the various colonising societies and Exeter Hall, To the firstmentioned the inauguration of a possible scheme for productive co-operation will be proposed, and they will be asked to provide a market for the meat and other produce of the proposed association. To the labour councils will be submitted the proposals for the experiment of colonial settlement for surplus labor. The friendly societies will be invited to consider a scheme for the investment of their funds in reproductive and everincreasing securities, and to the general public will be offered a safe investment for money at a reasonable rate of interest, added to a portion of the profits aud increased value of property. Mr Rees will submit to them a tentative scheme of colonisation upon a large, or ganised, and comprehensive plan, and one by which the idle land of the colony can be utilised and become a source of wealth and comfort to the over-crowded population, and provide investment for the unused capital of the United Kingdom. Mr Rees proposes in this way to join in partnership the capiialist, the producer, and the consumer. The Natives of the North Island of New Zealand have conveyed a large area of land to Mr Rees and Wi Pere for the purpose of making an experimental settlement upon the terms suggested. Wi Pere is empowered, on behalf of his native countrymen, to state that if the proposed experiment should prove successful, large territories of fertile land will be willingly conceded by them on the terms of partnership for the investment of English capital and labor, while the European inhabitants of the district and the organised public civic bodies have petitioned the New Zealand Parliament and the English House of Commons, praying that they will assist Mr Rees and Wi Pere, and that such colonisation may be directed to the east coast of the North Island, and promising advice, assistance, and welcome to all persons sent there to colonise, the sole conditions being that they should be pen-ons of proper character, accompanied or sustained by sufficient capital to enable them to sett-e upon the land and become producers of wealth. We understand that there is a possibility of Mr Rees meeting the Crofters of the Western Wands, with a view to forming a special settlement.”