Catlin's River.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7178, 1 June 1891, Page 2

Catlin's River.

It is announced that ninety-six men have been sent down under the charge of Mr March from Dunedin to join the band there who are at work upon the railway, and who have taken up sections under the Village Settlement sjstem. This is a policy which has been Bneered at frequently. Turn to the statistics of the Feilding Settlement. The census chronicles a rise in the population, during the five years, of 50 per cent, from two thousand to three thousand. How has that come about ? Freehold on deferred payment, nothing to pay fox three years, work found in the beginning, roads made sufficiently to give access to the land offered. There is a simple programme! Penniless men under it have become independent freeholders, and the census has chronioled their prosperity beyond the reach of doubt. The same thing can be laid of at

least a dozen special settlements under Mr Ballance's Land Act in the North Island. With all their faults these settlements have enabled poverty to be turned into independence by the magic touch of hope, opportunity, industry, and thrift. The : Village Settlement system has like victories inscribed on its records, as the Hon \ Mr Copley of South Australia found out only the other day, and has chronicled in a most exhaustive able report to his Government. Now do you see that Catlin's Eiver policy in its true light ? If you do, you will see a remedy of powerful influence to stop the exodus,