TO SETTLE SUNDAY ISLAND

Taranaki Daily News, 9 August 1930, Page 11

TO SETTLE SUNDAY ISLAND

LAND OF GREAT FERTILITY SCHEME LAUNCHED IN AUCKLAND THE SOCIAL SYSTEM EVOLVED. (By Wire.—-Special to News). Auckland, Last Night. Prospects of life on a tropical island accompanied by many of the amentities of civilisation and with a properly regulated system of law and order are held out by a scheme which has been launched in Auckland for the settlement of Sunday Island, the chief island of the Kermudec group. The island lies 642 miles to the northeast of Auckland, a distance of two and a-half days’ steaming, and its extreme fertility and genial climate offer many attractions -to those who desire to make a home where' ‘hard work and pleasure can, - easily be combined. A carefully .plailned system of social regulation and administration ivilT ! ensure the’ settle-; mejit being founded on.,a basis, of permanency, and as further assistance to this, end it is proposed that the island ■should be settled by families and not. by single men., . . . Sunday Island,' which is about seven miles long and four, miles broad, is a hilly, broken island of wonderful fertility. It has level stretches of land :which are well suited,to cultivation, and it is one of .these areas which’the promoters propose to acquire for settlement. • The land will be surveyed as equitably as' possible and each family ■will 1 receive the -freehold of an area of about 27 acres leaving an area of five acres which will be vested in the community as common land... The social .system will bo ; based on •the; ’ principle of mutual help. Of the small capital required from the settlers ■a certain sum will be, reserved for. a common fund' fat, the purchase of such (implements as can 1 -be shared by all imemburs and which could not feasibly be purchased by individuals. For the maintenance of law and'order it is proposed that any disputes which may arise should be settled by an elected council. The fanning of produce for the New Zealand market will, be the, chief, occupation of the settlers. Fruits and vegetables of the temperate zone can be "rown in abundance in the climate of Sunday Island. Wireless communication will bo maintained with New Zealand and for the puipose of signalling to passing ships should the need arise.