NEW AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2104, 21 June 1894, Page 34

NEW AUSTRALIA.

AN INDEPENDENT REPORT.

The Rev. F. Hastings, of Adelaide, having decided to visit South America on his way to England, he undertook to visit New Australia, in Paraguay, and report to several Australian papers. The first of his letters, " In Paraguay," appears in the South Australian Chronicle of the 2nd June, and as considerable interest is taken in this colony in the New Australia movement), we abridge the following particulars :—: —

At Cabillero I was surprised at being accosted by name. Two of the New Australia colony were waiting there for the coming "second batch." They were getting bullock waggons ready. To find 40 could be no easy task ; they would want that number to carry the women and the baggage. Vica Rica is a scattered place of about 10,000 inhabitants, and in the centre of a rich agricultural district. Here I am fortunate enough to be welcomed by the manager of a great sawmill. Mr Urquhart has made a number of New Australian colonists feel grateful. He received those who were ejected by Mr Lane and helped some to get away from the country or to find a place of shelter and work. Some through him went to the new colony Btarted by and called after the present President " The Gonzalez oolony." Others he helped to purchase small holdings. I saw the home and holding of one who had been aided by Mr Urquhart. He had left willingly the New Australia and it was a pleasure to see how hopeful he was. I met at the house of Mr Urquharfc several of those who had recently left the new settlement. It was strange to see their eagerness that I should communicate to their brothers in the old colonies the disappointment they felt in this. They poured into my ears their tale 3of annoyance, of broken ideals, of bitter regret-, and

WRONGFUL TBEATMENT.

They complained that there was a difference in the basis of organisation. The settlement had been registered as a land company with a capital of £20,000. Proxies had to be approved by the chairman, Mr W. Lane. He could apply the proxies of those absent to check the carrying out of the wishes of the pioneers. Although a large number signed a requisition to hold a meeting Mr Lane utterly ignored it. Oue said there had been disagreement with the chairman from the start; that if they could after two weeks' voyage out have found an island on which a great number could have been left they would gladly have forsaken the enterpri 'c of the New Australia. Some evidently were disappointed because their own supposed personal merits were overlooked. One of the men who was foremost in talk that evening was a man who was certainly not fitted to do much towards building up the settlement, but the rest were men of splendid physique and determination, who might do good work anywhere. One had, by the appearance of his wife, reason to complain of the hardships endured on the Tar, in the transit for three days in a bullock dray, lying on goods and with the face only 2ft from the iron covering, heated mercilessly by the tropical sun. Great complaints were made of the way in which tea and coffee had been at once withheld from the women, and only mate substituted as a beverage. None could go and purchase any little luxuries. Then they complained of the way in which Mr Lane, as a sort of dictator, favoured only men of the Queensland shearer class, and ignored the better educated, thoughtful, and competent men who from principle had joined the movement. The constant suspicion and bickeriDg made life unbearable. Boycotting was resorted to by Lane's followers ; threats were used ; police were called in to give effect to the decisions of Mr Lane aa a Paraguayan magistrate ; ejectments were sudden and forcible "Men and women unfit to travel had to go." Such were the words I listened to. But the one thing that made a deep impression on me was the asserr tion that a large number of

NATIVES HAD TO BE EJECTED from their holdings to make room for the colonists. The land granted by the Paraguayan Government was not very valuable. It was almost useless. Better was wanted. More land was bought from the Lowrie estate. On this estate were numbers of natives who had cleared patches in the woods, planted crops, and paid rents for the privilege. It is said that as many as 500 families were scattered over the estate and the lands granted by the Government. Mr Lane with a police officer served notices of ejectment on numbers of these natives. They were told that if they remained their rents would be doubled or quadrupled. They were told that the Government would give other land and give them titles to the land. But the people did not wish to leave homes built by themselves, their orange groves and banana plantations, their mandioca and maize patches, They were, however, compelled in many cases to move. They feared the police. They looked with horror on the rude way in which the newcomers helped themselves to sackflful of oranges and gave nothing in return. They were, however, promised compensation for«all standing crops, and that they actually received. When, however, some j of the new colonists learned the actual state of things, and learned that it had been foucd necessary to obtain such questionable advantages because the land granted by the Government had been of such little worth, they were wroth. They said, "We did not flee from the tyranny of capital and the greed of large landed proprietors to become ourselves in a corporate capacity land-grabbers and rackrenters." They thought they had gone beyond the limits of population, »nd fchat they were fco make a paradise of a desolation, and not a place of weeping for the rural and gentlespirited natives of the soil. Now Mr Lane knew of this before the first batch sailed. He told one that there was "only one old woman on the land; then he admitted that there might be eight families." The eight families meant more than 800 souls. Such were the stories I had to hear. I must ascertain, if possible, fcow far they are to be accepted and what counterbalancing there is. There were also further complaints that Mr Lane, without consulting any but bis subservient committee, had suddenly resolved to fend Mrs Lane to Australia to look for young women to come (o the settlement. She had to take someone with fcer to help to attend to her children. Tbic, some of tbem said, is in direct opposition to the social-exiuality idea on which the colony was supposed to be founded ; no one is supposed to take service under an individual. They thought her also unsuitable for the work, as in the colony she seemed to hold aloof from others.

Apart from having to listen to so much that saddened me in respect to an enterprise that started with such promise, I greatly enjoyed my stay at Villa Rica.

NEW AUSTRALIA.

Mr Hastings found the journey from Villa Rica to New Australia rather a rough one, but not without its coraoensations. " Oranges," bo

writes; "we pluck by the way. Butterflies of great size flit past and tempt us to hunb — brilliant blue wings; edged with black, or orange, or vermillion ; sometimes purple and yellow. Here is the place for an entomologist. And orchids ! What a wealth of them. This is the very home of the orchid. The road through the ' monti ' or wood is beautiful. Red soil contrasts strongly with rank vegetation. Enormous trees lean over the path. Their trunks are almost as varied in colouring as the red gams of Australia. Bub the heat ; how moist and oppressive. Arrived at the settlement the first house met with is bhab of Mr Sibbald, lately of Adelaide." Mr Hastings continues : " It was the more pleasant to meet thus wibh one who knew not that I meant to visit the settlement. And what a welcome we had from the other members of the family. Mr Greenaway was at home, for he had spent bwo months in the colony thinking to join it, albeit he has now banished such a thought. There sat the one whom Adelaide knew as Jack Sibbald, open collar and woollen shirt, dark pants and slippers. He had doffed all outside respectabilities, but Mrs Sibbald could not so easily throw aside tastes of Australian-cultured life. The wellworn clothes sat still shapely upon her. The Bons I should not have recognised — barefooted, rough-handed, unkempt, intentionally making ing themselves just like any of bhe rougher young men of bhe settlement.

Many were the questions of that evening. We sit up on a stool, and lean not against the cracked wall for fear of crickets. Large and slimy, they seem everywhere. We are told at once bo be careful, as bhe destructive insects not only cab inbo clobhes bub eat bhe hair from children's heads and tips from the fingers. The very next morning Miss Sibbald showed me her forefinger, from which bhe outer skin had been nibbled in the night, leaving the red exposed tip very sore. " Beware, too, of the jiggerp," said young Sibbald ; " I have taken 40 oub of my feet to-day." This was not very cheering the first night. We inquire what they do and how to avoid them. "They are smaller than fleas, burrow in the skin, lay eggs, create swellings. All you can do is pick them out when you find them. Don't leave your boots on the ground ; they like to get in boots and attack only the feet." Of course, we book the hint and have not yet been troubled by the jiggers.

We went into the general library for a time that the room which served as a diningroom might become a bedroom. A smudge of dry cowdung on the mud floor made mosquitoes disappear. It spread an incense like perfume through the whole length of thab building, which served as storehouse, library, and dwellingplace for several families. The low j partitions allowed of the passage of fresh air, but alas for the privacy so generally loved by those of the Anglo-Saxon race. That privacy will be gained when each family shall haye — a? many already haye — their own separate dwellingplace and lot. How glad we were to lie down. The hostess in short space of time arranged two beds for the late visitors. We drop the curtains that serve for doors and soon ourselves both drop into profound sleep. Our first night in the New Australia was a profoundly peaceful oae.