LABOUR SETTLEMENTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Waikato Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 3492, 10 November 1894, Page 2

LABOUR SETTLEMENTS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

In view of the somewhat doubtful success which has attended the establishment of Labour Settlements' in this colony, the following from the Sydney Mail upon the same subject will lie read with interest.

The labour .settlements policy initiated last year is not working out in an encouraging manner. -According to the Minister for Lands the Bega settlement will in a short time be an absolute failure; the- Wilberfnrce settlement, which was established on somewhat different lines, each settler contributing £lO, is not in so bad a condition, but the reports from it are disappointing ; and the Pitt Town settlement, which is the largest undertaking of the three, and has aborted £4450 of public money, would collapse if a further grant in aid were not available. A bill to authorise the Government to grant another sum of £2500 during the next twelve months has been passed through the Assembly, under the understanding that the Government will institute thorough inquiries into the state of affairs amfreport to the House. There are differences of opinion about this settlement, the Board of Management being much more sanguine than the Government officers who have inspected the place. The prevailing testimony is that the site has not been well chosen and the soil is poor. The Minister says that the settlement is at a critical period of its history ; the experiment may possibly turn out a success, nuc it may probably turn out to be a failure. Under ail the circumstances, it may be better to send the additional £2300 after the £4500 already spent, in the hope that the whole may* not be wasted ; but there should be a firm determination to stop at that point. The whole uoderfciking, in our view, rests on a false foundation. If it should succeed, what next should follow ? There are 96 settles enrolled, and in ad 478 souls on the settlement. But.it has not been shown or pretended to be shown that these particular people have any special claim upon the State that they should be granted the means of making a start in life, and be supported until they can r'p:>rt success by funds derived,from

public taxation. If their claim is admitted, whose claim can equitably be refused ? And if the State is to provide these people with the means of starting as farmers, why should it decline to supply other people with the means for starting in other lines of business or industry ? One of the greatest dangers before this community is that of .a reckless extension of the function of the Government for the gratification of men who denounce the capitalist and the employer as the natural enemies of labour,