VILLAGE SETTLERS AND THE VILLAGE SETTLEMENT SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9171, 28 September 1888, Page 3

VILLAGE SETTLERS AND THE VILLAGE SETTLEMENT SCHEME.

" A Poor Settles," Helena Bay, writes as follows :—

There being just now so many conflicting reports in regard to the condition of the village settlers, and, as many persons are puzzled what to believe on the subject, perhaps you will kindly grant a North of Auckland settler the necessary space to say a few words on the matter. I will prefer two reasons why you should do so : In the first place, mv being one of your subscribers, and because I shall not feel content to be debarred from a privilege which you so graciously accord to many other scribbling commentators. By way of a short proem to my remarks, for the benefit of yourself and readers, and, moreover, becaiise they may bear some affinity to my own observations, I will relate a few words that were told to me only a short while since by one of the oldest amongst the Bay cf Islands settlers, and they are these : —"The means by which I have always managed to get alonjj in New Zealand have been by always speaking the truth ; and, as there are but a very few people in New Zealand who care to receive the truth, I have always been enabled to hide anything which it might have served my purpose to conceal." But, however this may he, it is my intention to place a few sterling facts relative to the so-called village settlements before your readers, notwithstanding the dictum of the Bay of Islands settler. In the first place, I shall submit that the village settlement scheme is neither a happy nor prosperous institution, nor can it become such under the present lines of its organisation, and that the porson who thus originated it must have been an ultra monomaniaist, or, otherwise, the incarnate impersqnification of cruelty to animals. For imagine a number of indigent persons being placed back into primeval forest land, very remote from having the most meagre claim to civilised or social belongings, not even a decently-formed track to get there and thence, and with everything as regards the necessities of a home to create for themselves, and herein you have a real picture of the Elysian fields so generously allotted to the so-called village settlers! The word " village" certainly sounds euphoniously, as it carries one's thoughts back to the village church and tower, with its peal of sweet, musical bells; the resident clergyman, surgeon, and schoolmaster, who gave a tone of respectability and consolation to the surroundings ; the village hostelry, where the traveller might regale himself most comfortably, ana at small cost, and where the villagers themselves couid meet and enliven their leisure hours with .wholesome homebrewed ale at the mild coat of one penny per glass ; besides many other-right, well-ordered institutions which had been nanded down by the wisdom and goodness of thoughtful ancestors. But, by some unpropitious ordering of the Fates, all these good things are debarred from our villagers. Perhaps it might hardly be the correct notion to expect that young beginners should warrant tnetnselves in expecting to enjoy the plenteous and luxurious .surroundings of older established housekeepers. Let us hope, however, that there is no one to be found so hard-hearted as to maintain that their starting-point should begin amidst conditions that shall render them poverty-pinched, jaded, and abject! That these miserable conditions must culminate upon the heads of 90 per cent, of the village settlers, under the. present crude and unwholesome system, no-one who has the necessary perspicacity for looking into the matter will deny. What kinds of crops are those staunchhearted tillers of our root-bound soils to produce that shall bear being excised, in th»ir barter, to the extent of six shillings against sixteen or eighteen shillings? And this is the present ratio of premium which they have to pay in exchange of their wheat for flour. It is obvious, then, that, if the village settlers are to be placed upon a prosperous and safe footing, they must, by some means or other, he rendered exempt from such terribly exacting conditions ; in a word, they must lie placed m the position" of being able to be their own local purveyors in regard to their own food • supply. Having achieved this position, and by working their lands upon sound principles of cheap production, they will hold the power of placing their surplus matter upon the market and of silencing the most inveterate grumblers in New Zealand. The chief factor required to bring about these desirable benefits is the possession of a local ilourmill. This would act as an everstimulating force to the villagers to cultivate the different kinds of cereals, and thus provide cheap and ready-at-hand food for themselves and their domestic animals; and, having once tasted the sweets of those advantages, they would stick to them like bees to the honeycomb. New Zealand may be ranked as one of the mast undesirable of Her Most Gracious Majesty's possessions for the profitable prosecution of agriculture; and, therefore, this, the chiefest amongst the human industries, should be fostered by every constitutional means. I will mention only two out of many reasons for its being so : its remoteness from the great consuming peoples of the world, and %ne antagonistic social conditions which the small number of people who occupy the colony have built up lor themselves. At a day not long gone by the writer of these remarks made the attempt to try and persuade his fellowsettlers not to build their hopes too highly upon the golden advantages to be obtained by the means of fruit-growing in New Zealand ; but the worthy generalissimo of the Auckland Weekly News countermanded the evolution. I wonder whether he will let

me declare this fact 1 For the general good of this colony there are too many people in it of that class which, in vulgar parlance, are aiming to live by their wits. It is all very well for those swagger-street, billiardsaloon, and skating-rink habitues to advocate that their less vicious and more indus-triously-inclined fellow-citizens be relegated to the far outposts of the colony a,s village settlers (so called), in order that those in the towns might get cheap food; and thus indulge in their despicable idleness. And now, Mr. Editor, I must beg to devote a few lines to thank you and the galaxy of learned writers that compose the staff of the Weekly News who by their literary labours contribute so admirably to render pleasant and instructive the homes of so many of us poor settlers who inhabit the everlasting sylvan and fern-clad hills and valleys o? North New Zealand. 1 will also venture to add that in these flagitious times, when so much is said and written in behalf of the system of technical education, it will be a propitious day for the people when the editor of every newspaper who takes upon himself the duty of descanting upon the science of tilling God's earth shall be compelled by law to" render himself a proficient therein by the above method of instruction. J am sure, sir, that you will agree with me that a knowledge of agriculture and all manner of useful learning are exceedingly good things, and with the proverb, Mais aominis alitur doctndoo