Co-operative Settlement Scheme,

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 3201, 17 August 1892, Page 2

Co-operative Settlement Scheme,

The Dunedin Debating Club recently dißoUßßed the industrial and co-operatira - settlement scheme brought coder the I notice of the public by Mr. Bastings. Mr. C. M. Mouat, the opener of (he debate, moved —•• That Mr. Bastings' | industrial and co-operative scheme is a [ satisfactory solution of the difficulty of i removing the unemployed and of reducing I tbe cost of charitable aid." He»said (bat the persons to be dealt with by tbe scheme might be divided as follows, viz. : —(1) The unemployed and -the ablebodied poor receiving outdoor relief. This class be subdivided into those (a) permanently and those (b) temporarily un. employed. (2.) The disabled poor receiving out door relief, comprising physically . dieablod men and widows and their *^ ! ohildren,. (3.) The inmates of the Banevolent laatUutjon ario* Industrial School. He showed that tbe first class, moto particnlary the permanently or almost permanently unemployed class, was the reservoir that was feeding the oharic able aid class, and stated that any scheme to be effective in reduoiog the cost of charitable aid must deal with the unemployed in their initiatory stage ofdegene* raoy. He contended that Mr. Bastings'g scheme did this, and in the most effeotnal manner, for n did not merely offer food, clothing, and shelter for life, but waa also a stepping- stone to better things, by allowing an opportunity of learning a business which was most suitable to the conditions of the oolony, by giving a ohanoe of etoring a little capital, and by the way in which it fitted in with tbe land laws. He contended that this hope and possibility of raising the standard of comfort whioh the scheme inspired and * held out would alone ensure its success. \ He pointed out that another virtue in the scheme was the various nature of tbe work it opened, from ploughing the land to palling fruit, that both strong and weakmen, women, and children— oould be profitably employed; He also pointed out that it wonld be a most effeotua l test for finding out tbe "loafer," whose chances under the present system were great. In conclusion, he claimed that Mr. Basting's soheme had a great tendency to mend th« evils of poverty, whereas tbe present system bad a tendenoy to, if it aotually did not, aggravate them.— Star.