NEW AUSTRALIA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10211, 4 December 1893, Page 6

NEW AUSTRALIA.

ARRIVAL OP THE PIONEERS. A second”dbtachment. Mx* Tv T . W. Head, tho Sydney Secretary of the New Australia Co-operative Settlement Association, has received a letter from Mr James Mooney, one of the pioneers, and veil known as one of the officials of tho Wsgga branch of the Shearers'Union and other bush organisations of labour, describing the voyage of the Royal Tar. The letter w»o written from Monte Video, under data Sept. 16. The voyage is decribsd as a pleasure trip. Owing to the organisation in stewarding, &c., among the emigrants the usual inconveniences entirely disappeared. Various games were indulged in, and a pleasant time v?as spent. Nob once was it necessary to order tho passengers below, and only three times were the children prohibited from being on deck. The officials at Monte Video rendered every assistance and were courteous in the. extreme. The Paraguayan Consul there gave the New Austral)ana n formal official welcome, and promised, on behalf cf his Government, the treatment of the settlers as brothers. Paraguay was ready to defend the lives and tho iuterosts of the settlers with her life if need be. She was glad to have them, and would not regard them as foreigners. She wanted settlers, and believed that “ tho land was made by God for the use of man." Tho transhipment from tho Royal Tar to tho steamer Rio Parana, took tan hoars only, and the easy-going Monte Video people stood aghast at tbo way the Australiana shifted things. There ware two hundred and twenty-four passengers with luggage, and two hundred tans of cargo. The Sydney Morning Herald of Nov. 21 has the following:—Active arrangements are being made by tho Sydney officers of the Now Australia Co-operative Settlement Association for the early despatch of another contingent of 200 emigrants to Paraguay. The pioneers who left Sydney by the Royal Tar on July 16 arrived at Monte Video on Sept. 12, and at the settlement on Oct. 4; and beyond a cablegram announcing their safe arrival published some weeks ago, no information as to the voyage or the settlement has so far reached Sydney. The Royal Tar, which left Monts Video on Oct. 1. is due at Adelaide within a week, and lengthy letters regarding tho voyage over are anticipated. The communications, however; will pro’oably be confined io a description of ihe voyage, as tbo settlers left the Royal Tar at Monte Video and had no opportunity of sending further letters after their arrival at the settlement. The cablegram received from tho settlement on Oct. 4, although brief, is satisfactory, and has removed any anxiety which might have existed in the minds of the relatives and friends of the pioneers. The cable, it will be remembered, simply notified that possession of the land had bean ‘ taken, that the pioneers were delighted with the country, and that they were perfectly satisfied. A further cable reading “ Delay all women for six months; send bushmen with all possible despatch,” was received by Mr W. W. Head, tho Sydney Secretary, from Mr W. Lane,'Chairman of tho Association, on Oct. 26. The reason for tho cable, it is thought, is that the trustees have found it too rough a life for the women, and wish to carry out a portion of pioneering work before the women arrive. Women landing ia a densely-timbered country without houses would doubtless find the life a very hard one at first, but judging from tho description of the women who left they would put up with almost any hardship ia order to assist in successfully establishing communistic settlement. It. is, however, evidently the desire of the mala settlers, before any more women are despatched, that houses should be erected for their reception, and that at any rate the roughest portion of the pioneer work should be completed. It was intended, prior to the receipt of the cable, to have forwarded a batch of 200 married couples and single girls by steamer,, and, al-l-lip ugh the women, who have been anxiously looking forward to their departure, were somewhat disappointed at first,- they are cheerfully facing the situation, and doing all in tfceir power to assist the movement. A batch cf 200 single men, mostly sturdy bushmen, were then selected from the 3000 members waiting to leave, and it was at first decided to forward them by steamer on Nov. 15. In view of the fact, however, that the Royal Tar is almost due, that she will take only three weeks longer than a steamer ia making the trip, and that nearly .£2OOO would be thus saved, it was finally resolved that the second detachment should leave by the Royal Tar as soon after her arrival as possible. The single men will probably leave on Dec. 1. They will be shipped in Adelaide, where the Royal Tar will terminate her voyage, and will arrive at the settlement early ia tho new year. They are at present residents of the whole of the colonies, and the movement is taking root equally in New Zealand, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia as in Queensland, where it originated. It is proposed that the third party shall leave in March nest. The Royal Tar, upon her arrival with the second batch, will sail direct for New Zealand, where a full complement of passengers are awaiting shipment, and consequently the third party from the mainland will have to be sent by another vessel. The Association proposes to shortly purchase either another sailing vessel or a steamer, or probably .two. Tho officers confidently anticipate chat ere the end of next year there will be a thousand settlers,at Paraguay, and that the Association will possess three vessels. The shearers and other bushmen have from tho outset manifested greater interest in tbo scheme than any other body of men, and are etill doing their utmost in preaching the communistic or sbare-and-share-ahke doctrine. The following question is to be discussed at the February conference of the Shearers* Union:—"That in view of the great importance of the New Australia movement to Australian bush unionists, a ballot of members be taken aa to the desirability of sending a competent official of the A.S.U. to the site of tho settlement in Paraguay to make a full and independent report on the prospects of the venture being a success or otherwise; the cost of the report not to exceed .£IOO, same to be submitted- wsthm four months of the delegate’s departure, and published for the guidance of intending emigrants. And that in the event of such report being favourable, a certain sum per member to be set aside for the purpose of sending out unionists,'who are to be selected by ballot from those desirous of joining." '■