LAND SETTLEMENT

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20426, 17 February 1938, Page 10

LAND SETTLEMENT

SYDNEY ORGANISATION " WORK OF OAN' iN P,. R. ?. H NMMDXp Among visitors to Hamilton this work is Canon R. R. Hammond, of Sydney, foremost among the Common- : wealth’s pioneers in the work of set- ' fling unemployed men and their j) families on the land. Canon Hammond is In the district in the course of his second visit of in- ’’ spection to the estates of the Waikato I.and Settlement Society, and when ape proached by a representative of the 1 Waikato Times to-day gave some ina teresting Information on the Hammondville Pioneer Homes Settlement, at f Sydney, of which he is the founder - and governing director. y j On this settlement, which occupies e I 2 1 n acres near the city, there are now , j 102 families, established in their own y ; homes, he said. Established .iust five s years ago. the scheme aims at provid- , - ing for unemployed workers, not charity but the opportunity to own o home of their own. on an acre of e ground, free from the constant- burden of r^nt. Homes for Es a Week When the settlement was first established. said Canon Hammond, there was general depression in the building industry and the first homes on Hie settlement were erected by unemployed artisans. Mostly three-roomed cottages. with sleeping balconies, they cost about £1 Ah earb and though the cost of prection has since risen to about £i ?N occupiers w ere charged only 5s a week for the first three years and 7s 6r| a week for the next four a vears. In the seven years, the occupiers paid haek to the organisation the rest of portion of their homes and o the title-deeds werp handed over to them. The inepntive provided hy the p r-hanee of owning their own homes at P I such little cost through the provision i lof Interest- frep monpy and in such r, a short period, said Canon Hammond, i had had wonderful results. It had j hppn thouch that. m. n st of the workers t so helped would have hppn content to remain on the dole But this had not proved the case. Over 60 per cent, had found work outside the settlement, in addition to making good use of the acre of land given them. F Where families have grown bigger in h the settlement, additional rooms were t added to the hom.es and these ran also e e paid for over an extra period. ri Influence on Birthrate f The provision of homes and a de--0 | cree of future security had had the t j effect of increasing the birthrate in the j community, he continued. 'Whereas hut 2.f children a family, the proporj tion in the settlement was 4 3 a family, f.i-tv children were born to the set- ! tiers last vear. bringing the total mim- ' 'i- •••-. ‘ • 123. of wl on 237 ; were now being taught in the school j which the Government had erected • ■ tor was stat r •