VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LII, Issue 5155, 30 May 1891, Page 4

VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

Tha Sou. Mr Copley, Minister of lands 10 South Australia, whovisitod NewZealandafew months ago to inquire into the pillage settlements scheme, appears from hia report, to have been pleased with the settlements formed m Canterbury by Mr Kolleston, but he has not much praise for Mr Balance's settlements of later date m Auckland. The experiments m this district, he eaye, were four timea as extensive aa those m any other : the cumber of persona who took up land being more than iialf the total for the whole of New Zealand. "It appears evident that the village homestead special settlement system was ' nuhed ' as a relief measure, designed to disperse the unemployed into tho country dia■trirta. In the hurry, sufficient care wis not Hake" m fchn selection, either of (ho bcalily for the settlements or the men «br> worn to go upon them. People who hid never lived out of large to-vns were sent to tl.o land without capita), either of money or of ex- i perience. ... At the end of n short period after the inauguration of the BTstem, i not more than half the original settlers remainecl, whilst some of tba b^Janoe found their way back to the etreetß which they frad i left." Thare are fifteen of these settlements; I m Auckland out of 75 m the whole nolony. | Of the 650 origioal applicants for sections, | an]y 282 actual residents remain. r Xhe ad- i vaocea made amount to £9,270, and £15,397 i has been spent on whut may bo tormed ele- ! emosynary road work. Tubing the returns i for the whole colony, out of .1,159 ; original settlers only 614 remain. The area i held is 28,368 acres, and the advances for tho '. erection of liouboh have amounted to nourly £20,000 The rent and interest nrn both largely m arrears, especially m Auckland. Mr Coplej states that he was informed bysomo of the gentlemen whom h« intnirriewed, who had great experience of the settlements, that a number of the abandonment* of the holdings by the original occupiers was due to the fact that, when men were out of work, they seized the opportunity offered by the pecuniary advances to live m a cottage rent free whilst the pressure lasted, and then giro up the holding for more congenial occupation.