CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9143, 27 August 1888, Page 3

CORRESPONDENCE.

SUCCESS OF NORTHERN VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

THE SCENE AT THE CHORAL HALL. TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —If you will allow an old fellow who has had ft pood deal of experience of boys to give his opinion,, I would like to point out that a mistake has been made in taking so much notice of the disturbance at the meeting for conferring University diplomas'yesterday. To show resentment in such a case is at once undignified and impolitic. Had no notice been taken of this exhibition of misconduct, those who engaged in it would have felt more thoroughly snubbed than by the most scathing leading article. In such cases the chief charm of the thing—as any of us who have been students ourselves must remember—is to rouse the ire ot the " old boys." I have little doubt that every young fellow that shouted or stamped yesterday, looked eagerly in this morning's Herald to see what notice had been taken of his conduct, and all, I have no doubt, are looking forward with pleasure to the appearance of police, with birch-rods at the next entertainment of the kind. This custom, imported from England originally, has taken deep root in these colonies. The same rite is observed in all the other colleges of Australia and New Zealand, and is on the whole carried further than in England, so that the " true colonial spirit of manly independence" appears, if anything, to foster and encourage it. But I would like also to say a word to those noisy inhabitants of the gallery. You must not think that I am trying to defend

your conduct.' You yiiowed a want of di» crimination of the difference between being noisy and being a nuisance. For instance, your uproar was too continuous, and youi pea-shooters did not carry far enough, ana rained peas, shot, and grain upon my head, instead of that of the solitary graduate, at whom I suppose the missiles were aimed. If you are not ejected and birched by the " limb o' the law " on the next occasion 1 would recommend you to remedy these errors. Be careful nob to go so far as to " become something of a nuisance." It is quite possible to indulge in a little. bantei or noise without seriously annoying eithei audience or speakers.— am, &c., An Old Student. Auckland, August 24, 1888.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln the Weekly News of the 4th August is a letter re village settlement scheme over the signature "R. W. Hammond." Now, sir, with your permission, I will give your readers and Mr. R. W. H. a little different version of the case. Passing over the first part of his letter, as not) affecting the village settler, we come to hia assertion ; "We provide them with money to build homesteads, and with implements to till the soil." The first part is correct so far as £20 will build a homestead, and a beautiful one it will be. Then he says nothing about 5 per cent, interest which the settler has to pay, which, I think, is a better return for the money invested than any of the New Zealand Railways are likely to yield for some time to come. The second, re implements, is absolutely false, as no settler has been provided with tools or implements at the expense of the Government. If Mr. H. here refers to the Charitable Aid people finding the settlers with tools, then I say that ib was a very cheap way of getting rid of anyone who was drawing rations or pay from the said society. Then, again, he says, nob content with this, we employ them on making roads leading where, 'etc. Whose fault is i' that these roads lead nowhere ? Roads have to be made to open lands for settlement, and money is voted for this purpose every year. How can they be, or why should they be, unproductive works when the work is necessary, and has to be done, and why should not the village settler be employed as freely as anyone else? The foreman or overseers employed by the Survey Department take good care we don't get too well paid for the work. As to whether it is quite fair to saddle old settlers and farmers with any part of the cost of this scheme, I think that the village settler or working man has as much right to avail himself of any system of land settlement that may be in force as these old settlers had to get thousands of acres of land in the early days for an old song. Then he says, "If instead of locating these people on poor land, in inhospitable regions, &c." In this matter it is quite evident Mr. Hammond does not know what) he is talking- about. For instead of the land being poor, it is just the opposite, and in some cases extremely rich. I think thatt before men condemn this part of the colony they should inspect and judge for themselves. I may say that we shall be pleased at any time to see men of Mr. Hammond's type here, and I am sure we shall convince them of the error of their ways, by showing them beautiful rich soil, three to six feeo deep, which, if they be florists, agriculturists, or horticulturists, will make their eyes water at the sight thereof. I venture to say that there is not a single farm in the Waikato (which district I suppose Mr. Hammond refers to when he says, "had the Government acquired land in the large agricultural districts,") that can come anyway near this valley for its richness of soil and general fertility. We can grow anything that the Waikato farmer can equally as good, and scores of things that he dare not think of. It is true we at present are isolated, and haye no chance of employment. For my own part I hope I shall not want any employment, but be able to remain on my own place. We are not so isolated as were the Albertland settlers twenty years ago, and as to being in inhospitable regions, I venture to say that if Mr. H. was here for a month with his eun he would be in no hurry to get back to Auckland. Schools we have for our children. Railways we do not want, as under the present system of management they are a curse instead of a blessing to the country. Let us have a good metalled main road and we shall be satisfied. There are village settlements in Waikato, and if Mr. H. had to go and see them, and then come and see us he would alter his paragraph where he says, " What a difference in results had the £60,000 been invested as I suggest.'* As to the question of freeholds, all that we ask is to have a clause inserted in the Act giving us power to acquire the freehold any time before the expiration of the lease, and such will yet be granted. I hope the Minister for Lands will visit these settle ments, and not trust to outside reporb. They will bear inspection, both as to work done and improvements made. We can shame some of the 30 year settlers round about us, and are making them look alive men who, although they hold hundreds of acres of land, won't or can't grow enough potatoes for their own use. If the said Minister does come here he will go away with a very different impression of the poa despised North, to that which be holds a present. The majority of village settlers are not the class of men they are generally supposed to be. They are not the unemployed Waitemata and Thames corner loafers. These people will not leave Queenstreet. There is no chance of them getting a pint of cold fourpenny up, here. They are all sterling working men, who are anxious and willing to make homes for themselves, and rear their families in more healthy surroundings than are to be found in the gullies of Newton and the neighbourhood of the Cox's Creek nuisances. In conclusion, I would say to anyone interested in this scheme, or anyone thinking of settling on the Crown lands under any other scheme, that there is here and in this district land that, for fertility, cannot be beaten in the colony. If you take the seaboard from Hokianga Heads to Ahipara, and from there to Mangonui, and thence to the head waters of the Hokiariga harbour, you have included in this block some hundreds of thousands of acres, a considerable portion of which is really first-class. Some of it is very steep, and not fit for cultivation ; but there is quite sufficient fei anyone to have their choice for a considerable time to come yet, and on it one can grow anything they think fit, from bananas and cinchonas dj>wn to potatoes and onions; and, if you like to select) the situation with judgment, you are independent of the seasons. Green peas and new potatoes you can have in the middle of winter just as easy as in summer. Some leaves of tobacco I pulled a few days ago were quite as green and fresh as in the middle of summer. I may gay, sir, that) through a letter which was sent from here to the Press in Otago and Canterbury, we have had nearly fifty inquiries from people living in these large agricultural centres, who appear desirous of coming to this inhospitable' and isolated district. Anyone who does come, I think, will not regret the change, and I think that in course of a few years you will have to write of this district as the veritable garden of New Zealand, as I am sure we are quite able to wipe out Taranaki's claim to that distinction,-~I am, &c., A Village Settler : One Consent With His Lot. Takahue, Mangonui, August 20.