N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1887.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 780, 11 February 1887, Page 16

N.Z. MAIL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1887.

A correspondent of a Southern contemporary, signing himself “ A British Labourer,” points outeome difficulties that still stand in the way of land settlement by persons without capital, notwithstanding the very liberal provisions made under the system so ably and successfully administered by Mr Ballance. This “ British Labourer ” unbosoms himself as follow's : The Government give you so much land and charge you rent for it. So far so good ; that is enough. They pay you £2 10s per acre for clearing and grassing, and charge you 5 per cent on what you earn by the sweat of your brow, besides what you expend for grass seed which goes to the land. This 5 per cant is as perpetual as your lease. Next they advance you £2O to build a house—s per cent charged again, but that is fair enough. What I want to know-is this : How on earth is a man with a wife and two or three children to commence this business without capital, or at least credit? Do any of our sapient M. H.R.’s think for a moment that a man going to a strange place will get credit from a storekeeper for the necessaries of life for at least three months, for it will take him all that time to clear and build his house ? Then there is the timber for his house, and tools are needed. Both must be bought ‘on tick ’ also. Even if a man builds a sod whare, he wants a spade, mortising axe, auger, falling axe, wedges, maul, and. tomahawk. These are, ot the very lowest cost £l. Then there are expenses of removing family, for women and children cannot swag it. Suppose the land to be clear, he must then fence it with wire at £lllos per ton. Who will give * tick ’ for that ? It is no use to crop without a fence. There are two men whom I know—married, and with children —and myself, with wife and two children, who would be very glad to take up sections. We can all clear bush, fence, and work land (following that occupation or anything else, when we can get it), and are handy with tools, but we cannot raise even the 10s to pay for the lease, leave alone the other money that is required. Certainly we have an axe each and a spade, but while the grass is growing the steed is starving. We can scarcely rub along a* it is where we are known. How should we do where we are not known ?

The questions put by “A British Labourer ” must have suggested themselves to many other men who would gladly enter upon, the undertaking of land settlement if only these queries could be satisfactorily and authoritatively answered. Settling on the virgin soil, however it may be facilitated by favourable terms, conditions and regulations, does need a little ready money. The only feasible suggestion seemis to be that if the intending settler has no money to begin with, he must work for somebody else until he shall have saved a little. But this doe 3 not meet the case of the “ unemployed,” whose primary difficulty is that they cannot find work to do. Here, then, is a further problem for the Minister of Lands, with his enthusiasm and fertility of resource, to solve. A still more important question with regard to the settler upon land may be expressed in the words of the title of one of Bulwer’s novels, “ What will he do with it ?” or, in other words, what can he grow profitably for the market? AVe have asked this question on several previous occasions, without so far e'icitiDg an entirely satisfactory answer. Yet it is one on which the whole prospects of success necessarily turn. It is true that a settler may, by producing the greater part of what he needs for domestic consumption, render his farm mainly self-supporting. “ Mainly ” but not wholly. For he and his family, if they ao without tea and sugar, alcohol and tobacco, will still require clothing, boots, etc., which unfortunately do not “ grow on trees ” in this laud of pure delight,” as omelettes did in that other land of which the facetious poet wrote, and so they must he purchased. That involves the possession of money, and how is this to be procured save bv sale of the produce of the farm ? So when grain and wool and meat do not pay for growing it is not quite plain what the settler is to produce that will furnish money to defray the cost of clothing, etc , as well as to pay his rent, small though this latter be. The great thing, therefore, to be done toward furthering land settlement, the thing which would do a hundredfold more than any other step to encourage this desirable movement, is to show what can be practicably and profitably produced by a settler on his land. Once this is made clear there will be little need to offer special inducements for land settlement. It has been the doubt upon this allimportant question that has hitherto retarded settlement, not any difficulty in acquiring land. Various things have been suggested. Beet-root for sugar is recommended by the Colonial Treasurer, but has not been grown as yet to any great extent ; flax has been put forward as capable

of being produced with great profit; fruit ia Btill largely imported ; poultry and eggs are never too plentiful, and can be raised moat advantageously on small allotments comparatively near town ; the Chinese have shown us how easily and remuneratively vegetables also can be grown in the neighbourhood of our town: dairy farming, on the co-operative principle, has proved a success. All these have possibilities which are seldom fairly tested. Still they are mostly capable of being easily overdone, and then we are where we were. Something more is still wanted, and he who can supply the needed suggestion will he a public benefactor. Rewards have been offered and paid before now lor suggestions of infinitely less moment to the interests of the country.