VILLAGE HOMESTEAD SETTLEMENTS.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5624, 20 November 1889, Page 3

VILLAGE HOMESTEAD SETTLEMENTS.

[Dunedin Evening Star.]

The pet scheme of Mr Ballance for si tling tho people on the land does not se< to be a success, if we may judge from t revelations of a Parliamentary \r<\\ showing the "General Results of Villa Homestead Settlements " on 31st Mar last. It must be remembered that t tenure is -< perpetual lease " for tliir years, with a right of renewal for sub> , quent terms of twenty-one years ; t rental is 5 per cent, on the capital valu assessed at not less than LI per acre ; ai *' advances are made to the settlers as ft lows : — L2O towards the erection of dwelling house, 25s per acre for scrubbii and bush-felling, and 25s an acre for billing, grassing, fencing, and other improv ments, up to a limit of twenty aero Interest at five per cent, is charged r these advances. Surely these are liber terms ; bVtt unhappily the people wl have been placed on the land are not < the right class. The system has been i active operatioh at the above date f< more than two years ; and to quote fro: the report, " out \>f 1,196 persons wl: took up land on the special conditioi offered only 674 retaain." It appeal than 104 new settlers Ijave stepped int the places of some of hhose who hay left, but more than 100 ' «ire classed i "non-residents." Then comes the oni nous information that the area occupie by the settlers " nominally remaining" i March last was 21,368, of which (>,77 had been brought under cultivationprincipally of grass, which absorbed 4.31 acres ; so that out of the total area on] 2,4(52 acres can correctly said to be oulti vated. In all, grass land included, no quite one-fourth of the area taken up ha been put to any use. As to live stock, th' report records 185 sheep, 1135 head o cattle, 483 horses, 494 pigs, and two goat as being in the settlers' possession. Now, as to the cost of these "settle mentM." The nominal value of the lan< s .stated at L 35.000, to which must 1> added the following : — Advances on sections not abandoned £18,4.->i Ad vancea'on sections abandoned ... oSi Road works for benefit of settlements 12,08! Cost of locating settlers 49; Cost of lectures, etc 58." Fruit trees, etc., for Auckland settlers ... ... ... ... 77! £33,78( Making a total of LG8,780 invested in lane and otherwise by the Government in tlii; experiment. The net result is thus summed up : " The yearly rental payable by the .settler. 1 is L 1,770, 770 : interest on advances, L 923 total, L 2.693. And this amount, capita lised at 5 per cent., is L 53.860 ; so that il the settlers were to pay their rents regularly Government would nominally stnnc to lose the difference between L 53,86( and L6B, 7Bo— namely, L14.920— by the transaction." This is not a nourishing balance-sheet. Even if the cost of roads is thrown in as a dead gift, there would be a loss of L2OOO, besides the expenses of "extra supervision by the rangers, '' quoted at another LIOOO ; and, continues the report, "the amount will become greater if more persons throw up then holdings. " The item "lectures, etc.," is suggestive. It may be remembered that a Mr John Lundon, believed to be a political agent of the late Ministry, went about the Auckland provincial district holding meetings in furtherance of Mr Ballance'.s special settlement scheme, and that during a discussion in the House in 1887, Mr Ballance, when challenged on the subject, emphatically declared that the money was not paid by the Government for his presumed services. "Who, then was the recipient of the money paid for lectures, etc.," in the foregoing account '( The tables attached to the report show that, with the exception of L 37 10s charged against Canterbury, it was all expended in Auckland. Can it be possible that a Minister of the Crown said the thing that was not % But the worst has yet to come. " The settlers are. however, at present (March 31) in arrears of payment of rent L 1,394,, 394, and interest of L 329, making a total of L 1,723,, 723, of which sum L 1,327, 327 is owing by Auckland settlers ; notwithstanding that they have received advantages amounting to L 9,232, and road works have been executed to the extent of L 12,414, on which they have been engaged." It is right to say that in the provincial districts of Hawke's Bay, Wellington, Marlborough, and Otago not a single section is reported as having been abandoned. Iv Canterbury and Southland under fifty holdings have been abandoned ; and the large balance is found in Auckland. Again we notice that whilst the "advances" in the North amount to nearly L 15.000, they only amount to a trifle over L 4,000 in the South Island ; that for road works to benefit these settlements only L 285 was expended in the South, and L 12,690 in the North Island ; and that for passage money and miscellaneous charges there was paid L 457 in the INorth and only L 37 in the South. And of all these Auckland took the lion's share. There may and probably does exist some undeveloped cause for the failure of the system in the Auckland district ; but the explanation is not at hand. Perhaps some of our Northern contemporaries will be able to supply it. As the matter now stands, the village homestead system is being carried on to the loss and injury of the taxpayers. Certainly the results do not afford any encouragement for its continuance. It has often been asserted that it would pay the colony to give away the land for nothing, if people would live upon and cultivate it. But here is a system which gives the land at a rental of one shilling an acre ; carts the settler and his family to the ground ; advances money for the building of his house and the fencing and cultivation of his land ; pays him to make roads for his own use and convenience — and fails to settle him after all ! What must the old pioneer settlers of the colony think of this, except that the worst tiling a Government can do for a man is to weaken his self-reliance ? It was not thus that the colonies were settled and the waste places of the earth reclaimed from desolation. And it is not by such means that the welfare and prosperity of the people now in the colony will be ultimately advanced.