MR. RIDER HAGGARD'S REPORT ON LAND SETTLEMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12954, 25 August 1905, Page 3

MR. RIDER HAGGARD'S REPORT ON LAND SETTLEMENT.

In a Blue Book issued in England last month, Mr. Rider Haggard outlines a, plan which he has evolved for putting into practice on a. large scale the. principles that underlie the land settlements of the Salvation Army in tie United States. . Mr. Haggard went to inspect these settlements in the role of a special commissioner from the Colonial Office. His scheme for a wider application of the principles to the colonies first stipulates that a sufficient loan be guaranteed by His Majesty's Government. The other essential conditions are: Careful selection of the settlers and of the land. Skilled and sympathetic management of both after settlement. " It may be admitted,'' says Mr. Haggard, " that the' selection of good settlers, and the watching of those selected' for a while before final choice of them is made, are difficult tasks. " Indeed, if all this had to be done through officials of any sort, it would, in my opinion, and, I may add, in that of President Roosevelt, be an impossible task, or at the least so costly as to be out of the question. As it happens, however, a body exists to which the matter is easy, that, moreover, is willing to undertake it for nothing, merely as part, of what it considers to be the duty which it has toward? suffering and bewildered humanity. " I allude to the Salvation Army, a charitable and philanthropic institution, which I have found even better known and more respected in the United Suites and in the Dominion of Canada than it is in the British Isles. " This vast, organisation is, I am authorised to say upon its behalf, able and willing to make the selection of suitable settlers to any extent from among the poor of the cities' of Great Britain, conducting their operations under the authority and direction of an Imperial officer, appointed to control them."