CATHOLIC COLONISATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume X, Issue 514, 16 February 1883, Page 17

CATHOLIC COLONISATION.

(To the editor of the Catlwlio Review.)

I AM glad you are continuing the subject of colonisation, for it is the most valuable practical idea that can be inculcated, and there cannot be too much honour given to the distinguished gentleman who organised Catholic colonisation. Anything that has the effect of making the people see the lasting advantage of getting out of the squalid, unhealthy towns into the pure, healthy life of the country anywhere that they can be their own landlord by owning a home near a church and school. The nationalists who have cried out against immigration are those who have seen with anguish the suffering, demoralisation and loss of faith of the people in the great towns. We must show them that these things need not be, and that any industrious young man can make himself the owner of a farm.

If he possesses ten dollars more than the price of the railroad ticket it is safe for him to go West. Wages are high in a country where a man can take aphis quarte section as soon as he has earned the means to build a cabin upon it, which does not cost much, as the neighbouts help at the raising. - Better than the 160 acres that the Government gives in fee simple to the actual settler are the selected lands of the Colonization Society, with the advantage of Catholic neighbours, church and school. For those who possess youth, health and industry the West is the suie way to rapid prosperity, if they have the courage to face the wilderness.

More attractive to many are the long settled Middle and Eastern States, where there are still innumerable farms at moderatejprices. The agricultural literature of the country is full of proofs that small.farms well tilled are very profitable near the large cities. A single acre of cucumbers has produced 1,200 . dols. after the early crops of radishes, lettuce and peas had been taken off the same soil.

This certainly is a far more interesting and agreeable life than handling dry goods. It is a far better influence upon men, women and children than the scenes of the pavement and a few close stuffy rooms in a great city. The old saying is, " God made the country and man made the city." Let us judge the work by the architect and give preference to the best. E.M. J. M.