VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10601, 9 March 1895, Page 4

VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

We gather from the full report of Sir Joseph Abbott’s interview with a representative of the Sydney Morning Herald that we were quite right in assuming that our recent visitor had no personal knowledge of many of the subjects he discussed. “My visit to many places,” be frankly admitted to his interviewer, “ was a flying one, and a lot of information I obtained was not at first hand.” After this admission no one who has any idea of the source from which a titled gentleman would be likely to derive his information will require to bo told that Sir Joseph’s conclusions with regard to the social and political condition of this colony are totally unreliable. But notwithstanding this, we find hia statement that the village settlements here are “ mostly failures ”■ has been widely quoted by the Australian Press. This 'fact need not cause us - much concern, except so far as the statement is calculated to retard land reform in the neighbouring colonies, but we may fairly expect that the journals that have given so much prominence to Sir Joseph’s opinion—formed, by the way, on “ good authority ” —will not ignore the report just furnished to the Wellington newspapers by Mr J. E. March, the Superintendent of Settlements, upon his late tour of inspection through the North Island. Mr March found the majority of the settlers doing well, and looking forward with confidence to the future. Many of them have nice orchards and gardens, and are already deriving substantial assistance from these additions to their resources. And that there or© many working men in ' this part of the colony anxious to enjoy the advantages possessed by the northern settlers is shown by a paragraph published in another part of this issue. Mr <3-. W. Eusaall, the member for Eiccarton, has forwarded to the Hon John M’Keazie a petition from ninety residents at Belfast—everyone of whom, wa are assured, is ready to take up a small allotment— ; praying the Minister to acquire land in the neighbourhood for, settlement. This represents a mere fraction of the local demand for village sections, and if tho Government can obtain the necessary land it will experience no difficulty in finding hundreds of willing hands to turn it to profitable account.