A GOSSIP ABOUT VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 7425, 29 May 1891, Page 2

A GOSSIP ABOUT VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS.

i (Contributed ) That Vulagn Settlements in Now Z^\hmd began too lato 11 evident wero it not that their formation afforded another i'l >~- tratin of the truth of tho maxim " Bolter lato thai) never." They were pat off too late from tho fact that all the best land of the colony had pawed into private hands befoio their formation. All that was adjacent to roads and harbors hud been secured for pastoral or speculative purposes by the early arrivals. Tho last thing Now Zealand rulers learned ua3 that the first

purpose of the earth was for men and «omon to live on aud (o obtain susten nice thereon j hods and flocks came into consideration afterwards. As a man wa3 «o much better than a sheep or on ox, ho should in ail things havo tho pre-eminence. In the days when cattle and capital wero synomymous terms, the village community was a living and not a dead institution. The manor and the mark wore of later date, when settlement even among the Teutons had widely spioad, and capital consisted of coin of tao realm. In ah the colonies of Australasia settlement has escaped going through its preliminary stages, and the manor has taken tho place the village community should have occupied. The result hus been disastrous, in most cases, and in most of tho southern colonies, as Bcanty room has been allotted to tho Church, whilo Cetlric has spread hia hands and embraced all that his heart longed for or was pleasing to bohold.

In New Zealand we began wrong in ! attempting to transplant all the classes of English society into a new land, forgetting that the weak wanted protection from tho strong. "Master," said tho first fisherman in Pericles, " how do fishes live in tho sea ?" Tho answer of tho bard is as applicable to man as to fish: — "Why, as mon do on land ; tho groat ones eat up tho little ones." Tho story of Bornard Gapper, the first man pensioned by the General Assembly in 1854 ib that of many, many others. Gappor had, with his wifo and family, cotno to New Zealand seeking land without finding it. New Zealand, it will bo remembered, of all the Australasian colonies, alone had no waste lands, or lands of the Crown. &apver came to the colony in 1839 as an emigrant of the New Zealand Company, who had bought from tho native ownors, according to the statement of their agent, a territory on both sides of Cook Strait as large as the Kingdom of Ireland. This land the Company proposed to soil again at what it termed a "sufficient price" to exclude from its ownership men of humble means, or of lowly fortune. Land orders for New Zealand land were to bo purchased in Great Britain from tho agents of the Company, who had sold land of tho value of £100,000 before they were possessed of a rood in the colony. Gapper, not apparently having r'eans to obtain a land order, came out aa ,i " hind" to work for those who had. Being, us it wore, " crowded out," he formed ono of the " rank and file " in the Wairau affair, whero he got wounded in tho hand. Disabled for active employment, he became attachod in Helson to the Customs Department, and so drifted into tho army of the pensioners long beforo Stafford established Civil Service pensions, which Messrs Knight, Gisborne, and Heed buskled on to the shoulders of our young community. Land was held as a luxury and not as a necessity of life, aud oven in late years momberß of the House of Representatives have not been athamed to say bo. The Now Zealand Company have much to answor for, and in no case, more than in Hawke's Bay whero little fish are hard to be found unless they get holdings at large prices from the big holders. When Sir George Grey in 1854 lowered tho price of land to 5s an acre, tho prosont AgentGeneral, Sir Francis Dillon 8011, remarked to a friend " We shall now get people from Australia buying up the country m largo blocks and thoro will bo |htfcle or none of any worth for us and our clnldron," Sir Francis, however, wa3 a servant of tho Company and hollered in land being kept "at a sufficient price." Sir William Fox who was anothor of the New Zealand Companies' adventurers, even in later years said that land to a poor man was of no value, ignoring the fact that the " hind 3 " of the Company had become prospeious and wealthy by the labour of their hands, both in the districts of Nolson end Wairarapa. But Sir William was nevor particular when ho could scoro a point over an opponent in controversy. Tho auction system of disposing of land has boon the source of much evil. Land has gone to tho possessor of the longest purso, and not to those who most wanted

it, or to thoso who would make tho best use of it. Sales by auction and freo selection Bysteinß.have so prevailed, that all the land in the South Island at least, has been alienated and Sir Julius Vogal onco remarked to the writer that had Now Zealand obtained fair play and not been handed ovor to tho control of the runholdors, it would have had a population of a million souls before New South Wales. It is a subject of much interest to consider what New Zealand would havo resembled had it been stocked with mon and women, and not with sheep and cattlo. Newman somewhore says, " If small freeholds were more frequent — if for over/ farmer of three hundred acres there wore freeholders of fifty acres each, all the little villages would bo moio prosperous; every smith, carpenter, wheelwright, and miscellaneous dealer would feel the difference, and far inora varied elements would be afforded for conductive common affairs, and interpreting the thoughts of the multitude it may be affirmed that New Zealand i 3 too great a country to bo occupied for sheep grazing purposes. It is only a matter of time when the question will bo forced on our rulers, " How long shall tho squatter encumber tho land ?" With no attempt to discount tho future, it is significant that the holders of large estates are the most anxious for tho success of Imperial Federation, as though Dame Partington with har broom could stop the current of democracy wending its way soaward. A clever American said when the Village Settlements wero started by the Hon. Mr Ballance : "He will break the Bank of Now Zealand," knowing that if land could bo got by the people without money or middlo men, how the landed proporty would bo depreciated in price over which the Bank of New Zealand held so many and such hoavy liens. It oscaped collapse, as we all know, by handing over some millions of pounds' worth of landed securities to the " .Estates Company." though, as Mr Buckley suid at tho time, "it handed over securities it had no right to do." Of the importance of the Village Settlements it is idlo to dilate. Tho one v founded in part to roliove the pressure of the labour market, and to check the exodus of tho peoplo to New South Wales and other portions of the Austialian colonies. They have been tho means of planting many happy though humble homesteads, which will be clung to tenaciously. It was tho first genuine attempt mado to Bottle by tho Government

the power of the people on tho land. It incurred tho hostility of tho succeeding Government, which had its sympathies only from the rich and prosperous, and used calumny and untruths unsparingly to assail tho good they either could not or did not emulate ; and though mistakes occurred, the name of John Balance will be preserved in history as one who aided tho poorer members o£ hu fellow colonies to live on land of the State in perpetual possession without tear of being ousted by foreelo'UTe, or liiwrassed by the mortgagee. 'Ihe causes of the poor monetary success of the Village Settlements and the poverty of tho village settlers have chiefly resulted from the causes already stt forth, ihj settlers were pla'uted either in remote diotriets far from markets, or on land of a very inferior quality. Land that was fertile had been seized by the runholders, or had passed into the hands or corporations, and by them " locked up," " waiting for a vise." What was convenient to markets ha-l passed out of the possesiion of the Crown many many years ago. In tact all tho land of the colony best adapted for the formation of Vilkgo Settlements have so gone a long time since into the possession of private persons, and fertile land of a small aaeage convenient to market should havo boon what the settlers mere located on. They could then pay a rent from their produce, for which they could find a ready wl It; ma^ also be pointed out what the Impeiul Government gaic to hoc settlers in New South Wales in the carl} dajaofthe colony. They were to have free pa-sages for tlionvolves /"id their families ; to bs viclmUcl by tho Government during the voyage ; on their amral in tho colotn to ha - i 0 a grant ot ICU acrs* ct 'und at iort JacL='Jii, or 50 acres at Norfolk Isknd; to be victualed ami clothed horn the public stores for the term of t.nlve moufcha utter being put in possession, of their respective

allotments, and to bo be ulloired the labour of two convicts (mainfaino'l br Government) for the samo term, after which they ithJ thor families trer» to bo no further xpenao to the Crown. Thoy were also to have the same proportion of ofock, seed, grain, und agricultural tools aa was given lo other settlers.

Of tools, etc,, they got— soo twolvepenny naib, SUO twenty-four penny nails, 1 bill hook, 2 tomahawks, 2 reaping hook«, 2 West ludian hoes, 1 musket, 1 pound o£ powder, 10 musket balls, 2 felling axe», 1 spade, 1 adze, 2 gimblots, 1 auger, 1 iron pot, 1 hand saw, I cross-cut saw between two persons,

The 3teck and grain por family was 2 feraiilo goat<, ewes, or sows, 6 bushels of wheat, and 11 suilioioncy of mai« to crop the first year.

Of clothing, the quantity given to men was as follow, as also to womon— I jacket, 1 pair of stockings, 1 shirt, I hat, 2 blankets, 1 jumper, 1 bud case, 1 pair of trousers, 1 pair of ishoes, 1 coverlid. 1 jacket, I pair shoes, 1 handkerchief, 1 potticoat, 1 shift. 1 cap.

Tho extract from Tumbnll's voyage also adds, "The same to children if on the store." Whether the experience of NewSouth Wales in promoting settlement in that country can be Ukea for aught of value to Now Zealand or not, may by many perhaps be questioned, but it affords an Imperial precedent alike interesting and important.