Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price 1d. WEDNESDAY MAY 12, 1836. Special Village Settlements

Wairarapa Standard, Volume XIX, Issue 1831, 12 May 1886, Page 2

Wairarapa Standard Published Tri-weekly, Price Id. WEDNESDAY MAY 12, 1836. Special Village Settlements

Since writing on the subject of village settlements a few days .ago, we notice that a series of regulations have been published in the Gazette relating to the formation of Special Settlements of the village kind. This is altogether a new departure with respect to this question and therefore requires some explanation and notice. The main purpose of those regulations is to enable laborers and working men possessed of little capital beyond their own strong hands and ability to work, to settle upon the land and make homes for themselves aud their families. The land to be set apart for these settlements will be of the best quality. Some blocks in the Pabiatua district have been set apart for the first of those settlements and will bo thrown open on 11th June. Settlements of a similar kind will also be formed at Woodville and Eketahuua. The regulations provide that the land tt be selected is to be held on perpetual lease for the first term of 30 years, asd for subsequent terms of 21 years, without any right of acquiring the freehold. The rental is to he based on the capital value of the laud, which shall in no case be less than 20s an acre. Within the first five years |of the date of selection, an advance of a sum not exceeding £2O will be made to assist a selector in the erection of a house on his selection ; and in bush lauds a further sum up to £2 10s pet acre will be advanced for bnshfelling and grassing. The annual rent is fixed at 5 per cent on the capital valne of the land, together with 5 per cent on such sums as may be advanced, payable half yearly. The selector will require to reside upon bis land and fulfil certain conditions ns to its cultivation and improvement. As an illustration of the way in which the system will work, it is stated by the Evening Post, " that if the allotment taken up is 20 acres and the price £3 per acre, and if the settler within five years should have cleared the whole of his holding at £2 10s per acre and erected a bouse, receiving £2O toward the cost of the building, he would then have to pay half yearly £3 ss, or 5 per cent interest on the capital value of £l3O. For this sum he would be provided with a home aud sufficient land to enable him, after a time, withont outside assistance in Uhe shape of employment, to maintain his family.” This scheme looks well enough on paper, but we certainly do not think that even with some Government aid, a man without a small sum of money saved up, could go upon land with his family and provide for them during the first year or two. Of course if the- persons taking np land in those special village settlements could obtain work and wages to a certain extent either from the Government or well to do settlers in the vicinity, thfey could maintain their families on jthe money thus comiug in and devote all their spare time to the improvement and cultivation of their own holdings, till the latter afforded them the means of support. We wish all success to this village special settlement scheme ; but to secure that result, the men taking up the allotments will requite to be thoroughly accustomed to the country work on bush land, and they will also need assistance daring the first vear or two in the shape of a certain amount of work and wages from either the Government orwell to do settlers. In the absence e! those aids, the man taking up an allotmeut in a village settlement would need to possess some money of his own to tide him and his family over the first year or two, till his bolding afforded them the means of support.