THE PROPOSED SPECIAL SETTLEMENT AT RAROTONGA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9656, 31 October 1894, Page 6

THE PROPOSED SPECIAL SETTLEMENT AT RAROTONGA.

Sir,—By your issue of the 25th inst., I see that the British resident of Rarotonga pronoses to form special settlements on native lands in Rarotonga, which appears to me another " wild cat" scheme like New Australia, and only a degree or two better than the Kermadec Settlement. But first let me state that this is not written in any hostile spirit to either the Rarotongansor Mr. Moss. Lei us go by precedents. How many white people in Fiji has it paid to pursue tropical farming? Scores, yea hundreds, have lost their all; and the principal cause they stranded upon was the want of labour, and, an r rule, cv low market. In Samoa, the German firm, who have all facilities, have given up all tropical farming, except cocoanut growing. In Rarotonga itself, I knew people who plodded on for years tilling some land, and had to give it up. But it will be said that it is proposed to settle white people on small areas of ten to twenty acres. Let us take the least, say ten acres. There is nothing like illustration. We must assume, of course, that a man who takes up ten acres in Rarotonga does all the work himself. Ask any orchardist in this moderate clime how far, without assistance, two hands will go in a ten-acre orchard. Now, in a ten-acre coffee plantation it is infinitely worse, by means of the rapid growth of weeds. The coffee has to be picked (no srrWl task, being so small), pulped, washed, and dried. Why, by the time a settler had the first two acres in, the berries of the remainder would have fallen to the ground, and would be black and useless. As for native labour, that is a very uncertain commodity. The natives will work now and again, but being exceedingly well off—better than any working man in any civilised community—as a rule they do as little as thoy can. It has been the custom on plantations in Rarotonga owned by white men to employ natives thus : — For the weeding they are paid at 33 to 4s per day, and when the crop comes round the natives pick it and take half, the owner getting the other half, which leaves him generally the 3hell of the nut. It may be further argued what about ' the family of an intending settler ? To this I say that a man with a young family who leaves New Zealand, where there is plenty of land, in quest of tropical farming, is an unmitigated fool, for this reason : White children brought up in a black country, no matter how good the schools may be, turn out as a rule neither native nor white man; neither native because they will not put up with the simple habits and living of the natives, nor white man because they are unfit to go out in the world and battle for their living. White residents having recognised this fact, if they have the means, send their children to this country or Sydney. The man who has the means to start a 10 acre plantation in Rarotonga has the means of doing so here, and if he bestows the same care and attention here which the climate of Rarotonga would compel him to bestow there, he would make an infinitely better living in this country of ours (and brine' his children up in a proper manner) than in Rarotonga. Tropical farming is a delusion and a snare for a man of small means. It is very well for Mr. Moss to desire more population for Rarotonga, but it is not well that our citizens should leave our shores for so "wild cat "a scheme. If the Rarotonga Government is desirous of more population let them imitate the Queen of Wallis Island, who counts 400 to 500 Line Islanders among her subjects. Rarotonga has schooners of her own. Let these schooners go to the Line Islands, where thousands of natives are hungry at the present time, and would be glad to settle permanently on Rarotonga. The laud to be got in Rarotonga is only leasehold. I challenge Mr. Moss to produce one single white man who has been engaged in Rarotonga in cotton planting or coffee growing, who has made a fortune, or a little money, or even a comfortable living; and if it is only eking out an existence, an enterprising man can do that in New Zealand without going to Rarotonga.— am, etc., One who Loves New Zealand. Auckland, October 29, 1894.