GENERAL BOOTH’S SCHEME.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 9762, 27 June 1892, Page 6

GENERAL BOOTH’S SCHEME.

A STATEMENT BY CAPTAIN , ’ . ; AjiDEBTON. Staff-Captain -Alderton, of ,the Salvation Army, who is now ik Christchurch, on his way to. take charge of the Southern Division of the in this Colony, is fresh frond active,work in- connection with what is known as General. Booth’s scheme. In the. hope .that he-.might he ; able- to tell something about that scheme which might be of interest-to the people of Christchurch, a member of our staff called upon him at the Salvation Army headquarters for New Zealand, on; Saturday. Captain Alderton was, courteous and perfectly willing to give all the information in his power. Ha was most emphatic in his assertion that there was no danger whatever of the General attempting to make New,- Zealand an asylum for the criminals or ne’er-do-wells of the Old Country. In order to show that there is no fear of anything of the sort, he gave a brief account of the working of the farm colony, from which any emigrants sent out of Eogland under the auspices of the Salvation Army will be taken. THE HADLEIGH FARM COLONY. “I.have just coma from the Hadleigh farm colony,” said he ; “I left it on April 27. I had been superintendent of works there, and took down the first, batch of men seat there. It was founded about fifteen mouths ago. It consists of about 1600 acres situated on the estuary of the Thames. When we took it —it was originally three farms—we laid it out with streets, roads, drains and a tramway, and began to develop it generally. We put up buildings, too ; there are rio'w eight large dormitories for the men, a .‘large kitchen and dining-hall, lavatory and baths, tv ;eading-room and library open at meal times and every evening large barracks or hall, capable of holding 700 people, for religious meetings, a chair factory, workshops, stores, a baconcuring factory, piggery, cow-houses with 130 cows, poultry, sheds and rabbit warren, and a wharf communicating with about three miles of.tramwsy. -There are also about a dozen houses.for r,he officers and foremen. The colony is divided into five departments, each under a competent superintendent—horticultural and market gardening, agricultural, dairying, poultry, rabbit and bee-keeping and works. The last includes labour apart from the land, brickmaking, carpentering, chair-making, smith’s work, and other handicrafts. Each department is divided into brigade?, under competent working foremen. We have 450 men there, about hair being town-bred. There are NO CRIMINALS among them. AH of them have been seat from our city colony, have been specially

selected because o£ tbeir aptitude for farm ' colony life, and have passed at least four months satisfactorily in the : city colony. No unskilled or shiftless men are sent to the farm colony. There are about a thousand persons in the city colony now, and no criminals are allowed to remain there: criminals are dealt with in connection with our Prison Gate work. We have no intention whatever of sending criminals out of England, nor even of sending them to the farm colony. The men there are all of good character, some of them splendid fellows, farmers and others who have gone to the wall through no fault of tbeir own. They work splendidly, their conduct ia| good, and we are well satisfied with the results of the first year’s operations on the farm, which we hope will be self-supporting next year. The men’s families are not at the farm yet, but we pay enough to enable the men to send money to them every week, one-third of each man’s wages is banked for him. Taking into consideration the accommodation, food, and clothes we supply, the pay is higher than that of agricultural labourers generally. The hours of labour in summer are from 6 ».m. to 5.30 p.m., with two hours for meals, and often half an hour for a meeting or talk with the officers. In winter the hours are from 7.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m., with an hour and a half for meals and the occasional half-hour for meetings. A half-holiday is o-iven on Saturdays all the year round. In the evenings there are technical classes and lectures on horticulture, agriculture, brickmaking, and various mechanical works, Bible classes and the ordinary Army meeting. The men are free to go where they please; we exercise no compulsion in regard to religious matters, and we do not dress the men in Salvation Army uniforms unless they loin the Army of their own free will, and they are not accepted without trial. We supply them with clothes, though ordinary civilian clothes. We intend to form a co-operative farm near Hadleigh for men who are good workers, but who, from age or bnd-he_alth, are not likely to make their way in the world. They will work there on the co-operative principle for their own benefit. THE OVERSEA COLOUT. “ For the over-sea colonies we intend to pick out only the best men from the farm colony. They will he young or middle aged men, strong, well suited to life m a young country, thoroughly trained in the farm colony and of proved steadiness, honesty and industry. lam certain that the people here or anywhere need have no fear of the class of men we shall send out; they will be in every way worthy citizens and a credit to the country. UNFOUNDED RUMOURS. “ I do not know that the over-sea colony will be in New Zealand. The General was very favourably impressed with the country, but, when I left, nothing had been settled as to the place. The stories of his having arranged, to send hundreds of men out here are absolutely without foundation. When I left, Home _wo were enquiring from steamship companies generally the coat of passages to various parts of the world, and our : headquarters were in correspondence with . the New Zealand Government as to land, but nothing’was settled. .£25,000 of the £IOO,OOO raised to start the scheme is being hold in hand for the expenses of the over-sea colonies, which we intend to make selftsupporting,We shall find work on them for all the men we send out, so that the local labour markets in tbe countries to which we send them will not he interfered with. The men will be send out in small parties, & detachment of builders and carpenters being sent first to prepare the colony for the others. The families will not he sent out till the men are ready to receive them.”