A BITTER EXPERIENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14923, 22 February 1912, Page 4

A BITTER EXPERIENCE.

LURED TO WEST AUSTRALIA.

STRUGGLES OF A SETTLER.

UNABLE TO KEEP GOING,

Tin; bitter experience of a former New Zealander, who was induced by the lure of «i West Australian Government pamphlet to take up laud in that State, was related by the sufferer to a Herald representative yesterday. The story he told is likely to deter others from doing as he did.*

The disillusioned settler is Mr. C. F. Pointou. who was formerly in the Government service at Gisborne. and had been a resident of Now Zealand for fifteen years. He returned to New Zealand by the Victoria last Sunday, after an unpleasant awakening. A bulletin issued by the Agricultural Department of West Australia attracted his attention, and so taken was he with the prospect opened up before him that he threw up his position—incidentally resigning with it his pension—and left this country in September, 1910, with the express object of taking up land in the far west. Arriving in Perth towards the end of September, Mr. Pointon applied to the Government for a wheat area in a district called Munegin, but failed to get this. He then applied for another wheat area in Kondinan. and again failed. He had put in a third application for another section, but withdrew it on realising the difficulties of obtaining it. A Rude Awakening. Mr. Pointon's next step was to see the .Minister for Lands, the Hon. James Mitchell, M.L.A., on whose advice he took up 200 acres in the Warren, which is situated 26 miles from Bridgetown, at a place called Manjemup. He very soon found that the representations made in the bulletins he had read were very misleading. As an instance, the schedule sent to him in the first place stated that in the wet area, which included his section, the cost of clearing was £8 8s 6d per acre. In contradiction of this, the second pamphlet which came to his hands on arrival in West Australia gavo the estimate for clearing at from £10 to £30 and £40 per acre. It actually cost Mr. Pointon £25 per acre to clear the land he had taken op after ring-barking had been done about four years previously. Again, another pamphlet, dated 1909, which Mr. Pointon had read in New Zealand, held out the bait of "160 acres for £4." On his arrival at Melbourne a 1910 pamphlet, also issued by the Agricultural Department, bore on the front page 160 acres for £9 lOy," showing that the nearer Mr. Pointon got to West Australia the higher the price of the land became. >

As a matter of fact, he stayed on his section for about fifteen months, of which time he only held the land for twelve months, and paid to the West Australian Government nearly £30 instead of £9 10s —tho highest price stated in the bulletin besides which, he was kept three months waiting for the section. Thousands of Settlers Hard Hit. " There are thousands of people with families there in the same plight," said Mr. Pointon. "The object of the Government seems to be to bump the price up when once they get you there. They state on their pamphlets that a man can start there on nothing. As a matter of fact, horses cannot live there, so scanty is the feed, and what I would like to know is, how is a man to feed his horses if he has no money to purchase feed for them "I have been working latterly in the West Australian Government shops at Midland Junction, 13 miles from Perth, where I was employed with others in making water tanks" to supply to the starving settlers in the back country, hundreds of whom have had to leave the back districts because of the want of water and the want of means. A man on the same boat with me from Perth to Adelaide had lost £800 in a venture similar to mine, and in the Kyarra hundreds were leaving to get away to other countries. "I myself have returned to New Zealand with the aid of friends, minus my small capital of £200, and with practically only what I stand up in as my possessions. I would strongly advise any settler who contemplates going to _ West Australia to stay in New Zealand." Many People- Stranded Out Back. Pursuing the subject, Mr. Pointon said that, in his opinion, the - object of the West Australian Government was simply to settle people on the land, and when they got there, in nine cases out of ten, they had to go without meals, and were socn devoid of the necessary money to enable them to get away. Ho had seen children of 15, who were unable to pass the standards, and others of 10, who could not repeat the alphabet because* of the want of educational facilities in these back districts. " I have seen more poverty in West Australia in the fifteen months I was there than I ever saw in New Zealand in the 15 years of my residence here," continued Mr. Pointon. "Their land is no good ; vou cannot grow a thing on it. Where I was five families were compelled, like mvself. to throw up their sections, and ono man next door to me was on the verge of starvation. Privations and Failure. " While the Government says it will help you, it does nothing of the kind. I was supposed to do something over £100 worth of improvements in 12 months. 1 did £60 worth of improvements in six months. I and my family lived on bread and mutton-fat for six weeks, and in the end the Government threatened to take my land away because I was 10s behind in my payment. This, despite the fact that I worked from six in the morning till nine at night on my land, and suffered many privations. "Is it to be wondered at, he concluded, "that I have returned to Now Zealand, where, thanks to the influence of good friends, I am about to take up my old billet in Gisborne?"