PENSIONER SETTLEMENTS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXIII, Issue 224, 24 October 1887, Page 3

PENSIONER SETTLEMENTS.

(Auckland Star.) To be able to settle our lands, iccrease our population, lighten our burdens, and add to our clVi ctive defenca forces without incressed cost would be a grand thing for New Zealand at the present time, and if people were told that tiere was one Bimple msthod of seeming these objects, they would donbtlesß declare dia news too good to be true. Yet, m all soberness acd truth, the movement that has been 3e5 a foot for the introduction of militery pensioners to this colony from England is calculated to eecnre all the ends enumerated. The Chamter of Commerce yea* terday showed a due appreciation of the importance of the subject, and resolved to urge the Government to grant lands for the purpose of pensioner settlements m order to induce that class of settlers to come to the colony. Thanks to the exertions of Sir George Grey, Captain Daveny, and others, an intelligent interest m this matter has been excited m England, and the authorities then 1 , are most favorably disposed towards the proposal. At the Eame time, there is great force m what Sir Edward Walter (of the Corps of Commissionaires, London) cays m writing to Captain Daveny oa the Bubject ;— "The emigration of a good citizen possessing an income of £25 a year paid out of the taxes of this country, is a considerable losa to England. Yon must not therefore expect many people here, especially the Government, to facilitate their emigration. It is the Colonial Government that will gain, and that, too, largely. It is consequently their affair, and . much to their interest to set these men." Such being the case, it is to be hoped that the new Minister of Lands and the Government generally will enter into the proposal with vigour and intelligence. There is no doubt chat military pensioners make excellent settlers, and he past experience of New Zea ! and with that class of immigrants has been particularly happy. At the present time the amount annually disbursed by paym ster3 to Imperial pensioners m the colony is very considerable, and military settlers are among the most prosperous and law-abicii.ng colonists Then there. are many soldiers who have been recruited m agricultural diHtriCts, and who, disch-r-ed on pensions m the prime of life, wou'd be mo8 r valuable as country set lers. The fact of their having a secure annual income, a eragin? £25 a head, would enable them to live without becoming a burden to the colony, until they had placed their produce ia the mar ket; and these small capitalists would m no way come ioio competition with the artiean classed m colof.i 1 towns. Tv/; military settlers, from sheer foica < f habit and association would form or jo<n Volunteer corps, and by their superi .>r < isciplne and training would add materially to the defensive forc-s of the c lony. Sir Kdward Walter advises that the Colonial Governmen sboul give " special but indirect encouragement" to Eeservists to take up their abode here, and he has several hundreds of that class whom he will advise to emigrate. The offer of free land is the very thing to meet the' ease of these men, and the offer of land to 130 settlers would secure an influx of men whose pensions, capitalised at 12 years' purchase, would be value for L 30.000. so obvious are the advantages that there can scarcely be two opinions as to the advisability of our Government taking immediate action. In course of a discussion on this subject m the House of Lords on the 20th July last, one or two noble lords offered objections to the proposal, as it would mean robbing England of so much wealth m the shape ;of men and money, and Lord Harris defined a pension as "a retainer for the future "—claiming that England had the first right to the services of pensioners. The contention, as is admitted by the "Army and Navy Gazette," is not a sound one. The pension is a reward for past services, but even were it a retainer for the future, the removal of the pensioner to New Zealand would not divert it from its legitimate object, since he would here be rendering the Empire more valuable services than he possibly could by remaining at Home.