MR W. L. REES' SPECIAL SETTLE MENT SCHEME.

Otago Witness, Issue 1928, 2 November 1888, Page 22

MR W. L. REES' SPECIAL SETTLE MENT SCHEME.

Mi? W. L, Rees (writes our Homo correspondent oil the Bth September) has had one or two meetings of the oomniihtec which has boon formed to promote his emigration scheme, hut no Very definite action has been taken on the subject siude I last wrote. The prospectus of the proposed company has been partially drafted by Mr Rees, and is to be submitted to the committee next Tuesday. It is probable that a capital of £500,000 will be asked for ia £1 shareo. There will not be much difficulty in raising this sum, always provided th.it the promoter succeeds in obtaining the anticipated guarantee of 3 per cent, frocr the Imperial Government. Wi Vere has given a guaranteo that if Mr Rees' project is carried out 2,000,000 acres, extending from Hawke's Bay to Taranaki, shall be thrown oppn t.> s "1 ment. Mr Rees himself, hovvtwr, says thac this is a very modest estimate of the land that will be available, inasmuch as he has received assurances from influential chiefs in the King Country that six or seven millions of acres will be at the dißposal of Britiph settlers if it can be shown that the first 250,000 acres are settled upon terms advantageous to the Natives. Mr Rees intends to visit Scotland in the course of about three weeks for the purpose of bringing under public notice a scheme that he has proposed for the formation of five crofter settlements or colonies upon land ceded by Native owners in Cook county to the New Zea-land-Native Land Settlement Company. This will comprise 2000 families, or about 8000 souls. Three-fourths of the families will represent 3000 men and women, who are estimated to have an average of three children to a family, thus making 75C0 souls, and the remaining 500 will consist of 250 unmarried men and 250 single women. Out of these, 1750 men and 250 single women will be employed by the association which conducts the scheme, and will be engaged in the work of clearing and cultivating 90,000 acres which the association will retain round the settlements. Each settlement will consist of 400 families, and, in all, 10,000 acres will be allotted to t! c crofters in plots of from four to six acres respectively. The scheme embraces 111,000 acres, and euoh of the land as is not apportioned off amongst the crofters will be farmed by the association in the way that will produce the greatest commercial profit. Mr Rees, however, has the option of taking up another 140,000 acres, making 250,000 in all, and this could be done by raising another £140,000 by share capital or debentures. The settlers who are in the employ of tho association will receive £1 per week wages in the case of men, and 12s in the case of unmarried women. These wages, however, will he subject to a reduction of 15s a week for rations supplied to families, 12s for rations supplied to single men, and 8s in fehe case of singlo women. The cost of the rations is estimated at about £20,000 a year. It is roughly calculated that; th<> association would permanently sink about £350,000 in the operaMoa of settlement Of the original capital of £500,000 it is pnposed that £200,000 should be raised in the ordinary way — £150,000 by the general public and £50,000 by the Maori owners— and that the remaining £300,000 should be obtained either from the British Government or from' the public by the issue of debentures. In connection with this subject I may mention that Mr Edward Trcgcnr contributes an article to the current issue of the " Westminster Review " on " Compulsory Emigration," the application of which he advocates to the islands of tho Pacific. His scheme is rather a wild one, but he decl&res that if the Europeans do not (Speedily colonise the unoccupied islands of the South Seas tho Chinese will do so. His idea is that a Parliamentary Commission should b-a appointed, with powers to investigate sivl report upon the conditiou of densely crowded centres of population, and then to draft out all tho-e individuals and families whose net earnings fall below a financial z?ro at v.bich it is possible to provide good .and sufficient nourishment. This commission, he suggest?, should work band-in»hand with the police. Avoiding all unnecessary offensive publioity, Mr Tregear's scheme is attractive, but ife is to be feared that its practicability is open to doubt.

— On a Woman with Red Hair who Wrote Poetry. — " Unfortunate woman ! How sad is thy lot ! Thy ringlets are red—but thy poems are not."