3

H.—6

lands so felled and cleared. In several places, as at Pemberton and Chasland's Eiver, the scheme is working well, and small thriving communities have been established. They are already asking for schoolhouses to be erected, and showing other signs of permanent occupancy. The system at first adopted was to fell and clear bush on several parts of the future settlement, and then allow the men working thereon to ballot for the sections. This was found to be unsatisfactory, as the ballot sometimes resulted in giving a man a piece of land to which he had taken a dislike, or which was unsuitable to the conditions and number of his family. The later system adopted is to have the land roughly surveyed into sections of from 100 to 500 acres, the lots being shown by short side-lines starting from the frontage of roads already surveyed and definitely fixed. Each man, knowing approximately the position of his boundaries, can go on clearing for himself until the permanent boundaries are marked, off. The acreage is not rigidly kept to round numbers, but is fixed so as to suit, as far as possible, the needs and wishes of the occupier. A State Farm proper of about 1,000 acres has been commenced at Levin, on the Manawatu Eailway-line, Wellington Provincial District. Eifty-two men, eight women, and twenty-five children are on the ground, the men doing the preparatory work, cutting roads through the forest, felling bush for burning, planting orchards, &c, getting ready for the permanent homestead to be laid out. Another farm, to the south of Dunedin, has been selected and marked off, but it is as yet in its infancy. The men employed on the State Earm (and to be employed) are engaged on the co-operative system, and are not paid wages except in rare cases, where contract is inadmissible. The workers generally are elderly men, drafted off as to a depot, where their services can be utilised until suitable work for them can be found, if desirable. The manner in which the work is contracted for is as follows: The Manager names a price per chain for some fencing, and some half-dozen men group themselves and take it by contract at that price. Again, if the Manager requires an acre of land dug over with the spade, or firewood cut and stacked, or drains dug, for any of these things he names his price, and the workers accept it if content. As the Manager learns by experience the working abilities of the men, and is instructed to offer them a price which will insure an equivalent to a fair wage if worked at steadily, the men generally accept. Of course, continual refusal to accept work at a fair price would necessitate the removal of the discontented person from the farm. The families on the farm, if arriving destitute, are provided with tents, &c, by the Government. They will not have to pay any rent, but have to erect cottages for themselves with some small State concessions as to timber obtained on the spot. Each family has a half-acre allotted to its occupation for garden and domestic purposes. On a family leaving the farm an allowance will be made for improvements made under the approval of the Manager. This institution is by no means at present a self-governing experiment in any way. Those who wish to form such societies must do so in their own manner by means of special settlements, &c; but the State Earm is directed by an able agriculturist as Manager, who is appointed by the Government, and who has all the powers of an ordinary employer in arranging the details of his work, subject to his responsibility to the Department of Labour, and in consonance with the co-operative system. It is the intention of the Government, when, after some years, the farm has been cleared of bush and brought under skilled cultivation, to make its working purely co-operative. By that time sufficient knowledge will have been gained as to the character of the men and their families to act as a guide in determining who are to be the permanent residents. The idle and incapable will have been weeded out, and it will be possible, doubtless, to allow the farm to be worked for their own profit by a committee or council of those who have been employed for a long period. In the meantime, it is to be hoped that other farms in the rough state can be acquired and brought into good order on the same system. They would prove of service not only as outlets for the relief of the temporary congestion of the labour-market, but for the permanent settlement of families to whom town life offers neither livelihood nor inducement. There is every probability that the State farm will become a paying investment on the capital expended, as well as an outlet for a description of labour—viz., that of elderly men—which cannot find occupation elsewhere in times of pressure, but which has deserved well of the colony by previous long and hard service. THE UNEMPLOYED. There has lately been raised a cry about the increasing numbers and the many hardships of the unemployed. The Department of Labour has not relaxed its steady and strenuous effort to mitigate the trouble by supplying work to the most pressing cases. During the last year, 3,371 men, with 8,002 persons depending on them for support, have been assisted to employment. This makes the number of 9,838 men and 20,533 dependents (total, 30,371 persons) assisted during the two years and nine months of the existence of the Labour Department.* Of this year's number, 1,019 have been sent to private and 2,352 to public work on co-operative contracts. These numbers do not show the percentage of former years in favour of private employment. The causes for this are several. One is that employers do not give a generous support to the department in its attempts to provide workmen with employment. Without imputing motives for this negation of our efforts, I have to state that such is the fact. Another cause arises from the failure of the harvest in the South Island, and the consequent shortness of funds in the hands of farmers. Yet another cause is the influx of labour from Australia, the surplus of arrivals over departures exceeding 9,000. Our visitors have spread themselves over the country, and in many cases have obtained work from private employers, thus obviating the necessity of applying to the department, and in some instances causing local men to go in search of work. There is no reason to join in the selfish denunciation against immigration from the sister colonies. Most of those arriving are desirable additions to our population—sunburnt, sinewy men, whose earnest wish for work has been proved by the independent way in which they sought and found it. New Zealand

* The refunds for passages? have been made by the men at the rate of 81 per cent, on the advances.