Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 11 October 1905, page 9


THE SALVATION ARMY

COLONIES.

THE POOR AND THE LAND.

MR. RIDER HAGGARD'S REPORT.

_ !

Mr. H Rider Haggard who, besides being I

a popular novelist, is a farmer and the author of

a valuable book of "Rural England was ¡ lately commissioned by the Imperial Govern- mont to visit and report upon the Salvation- (

1st efforts at colonisation The results of

his examination was embodied in the usually blue hook and they would likely have re- i

mained buried there If Mr Haggard had not induced the treasury of the Rhodes trustees , (who contributed a sum of money to meet A expenses) to permit- the publication of the < report in book for in Here is the book. "The Pool and the Land, being a report on the Salvation Army colonies in the United States and at Hadleigh, England, with scheme of

national land settlement, and an Ititi educate lion" The sport itself was only submitted J

to Parliament In Its unattractive blue book , form last June, and it is still under the con- adoration of a depot amounted committee. As 1 this committee will not present its findings before next session of the Imperial Parliament,

the Australian Governments will not be far behind the home authorities in the matter of such information as Mr Haggard's 1 report contains THIs unfamiliar would, ^ doubtless have commanded greater attention J

If It had not been for the fact that General ; Booth has withdrawn his offer of 6000 families . for the purposes of colonisation in Australia alla The withdrawal, we have learnt, is

due to the opposition raised by some persons 1 In Australia itself, and the book before us,

(copy of which we receive from Dvmoik's't Albany) > 111 doubtless, give occasion to t these po> vious to lost the decision U

Mr ll.igg-iirl personally inspect, at the Sal- , vation Mine settlement in California and Colorado He inspected also the best lemons i in Ohio, 'Toit Herrick," but, as this was B mainly intended for the care and education A of Inebriates, it may be left out of account in The Californian colony inhabits a place called "Port name," and then there is "Port t Amity," in Colorado Here follows a gone- j realty, which is of value, and which is fully substantiated by the detail with which Mr Haggard later indulged us -

At both for home and lost Amity, I found the sf till a healthy, happy, Ik pi ful, and, almost without execution, doing well lliLlniiiiiR in nearly every time with nothing;, moreover, in the course of about four yours but I 011 homes, these settlers are now worth

an average of over £100 per head above nil then I debts and liabilities to the Salvation Army and others of and of Fort Amity an advance of over £200, which c is needless to say, a great deal more than they f could possibly have aecuuiiiliili'u during the same period as day labourers on the land or in the cities ,

Some may be inclined, though in the face of a actual facts, to imagine that this method of ] colonisation has been inaugurated for the pecuniary benefit of the Sale thou Army But it this does not appeal in beg ml to these Bottle- a month in the United States After mentioning the , fact that the settlers introduced by the Army 1 to the United States have made money, Mr Haggard goes on to report:

The venture however has not proved so prosperous to its founders, the Sale ation Army, who on those ? two settlers rats have incurred a total loss of about

/UO.OOO. TUIa loss, not very large It is true, al- 1

though quite as much as any charitable body can wish to face, is due to four causes (1) The facts that the settlements were established by aid of money prize

rowed at a heavy rate of interest, namely 5 and 6 per cent, and that the settlers were charged too little for their holdings, which they pay for by insUl ments, (2) the considerable initial cost of the state both at Fort Bourke and Fort Amity, (3) the fact that the settlers were first established at Port Koinie before the soil had been properly irrigated and at once confronted by a three years drought in the circumstance that at Fort Amity the land, which was virgin prairie, proved exceptionally hard to work

So it comes about that although the settlers are doing so well, the Salvation Army have been called upon to pay 2.0,00 for their experience

It would be a grave mistake to conclude from this £10,000 loss that the settlements are a failure One might as well say that the money expended by a business firm in an enterprise is lost because there are no immediate returns And in this matter, where the settlers make much out of nothing, the immediate object of the enterprise Is gained The Salvation Army finds its present account in the success of the colonies which it has formed in the United States, and the probability is that in process of time it will find an actual business return on the money It invested Meanwhile, the. scheme takes families what can find no work to do in England and settles them abroad The families may be of little account socially, but they consist of human beings after all The attractions of the cities have drawn them from the agricultural districts, in which alone they are equipped for work, and In the cities the poor people find themselves lost The streets are not paved with gold as they fondly imagined, and there are thousands of persons better" fitted than they to discharge the duties required of dwellers in cities It was a flash of magnificent inspiration which impelled General Booth to send such people back to their own proper work, but in a different hemisphere, to apply them to agriculture, but in a country where they could find ample opportunities for development

Mr Haggard has discovered a scheme for the employment of the unemployed-a scheme so simple, In his opinion, that his wonder is that no one has ever propounded It before Put shortly, It means the establishment of machinery for the transportation of the surplus population of England to foreign countries With the enthusiasm of the un-informed person who has discovered a scheme which was old when his forefathers were not thought of, Mr Haggard suggests that Great Britain should-do what? That she should export the labour for which no reasonable wage can be obtained locally But the antiquity of the proposal should not blind us to the value of Mr Haggard's personal examination of the Salvation Army colonisa-tions in the United States. He has gone through the country concerned from Dan even unto Beersheba and, he has found that the colonies founded by the Salvation Army are doing well That means more than any mere words It means, for instance that persons who jostled each other for more food-and that provided by charity In the streets of London, have been enabled to make their own way in other parts of the world. The opportunity which every worker needs has been brought to the door of the colonists personally conducted by the Salvation Army, to the gates of that city of El Dorado, which may not be opened except at the command of the potentate whose motto is personal endeavour "

If we take the commissioner's report on Tort Romle, in California, we shall gather a good idea of the work done and the difficulties which the Army has to meet in these colonies It appears that seven years ago Commander Booth Tucker, of the Salvation Army and a committee of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce bought Tort Romle which is a valley some 160 miles away from San Francisco for £5200, and forthwith settled upon It 13 families drawn from indigent people In that city. The settlement was a dismal failure, and but one of these 18 families now remains at Fort Romle There was no Irrigation and the three years of drought which followed the beginning of the enterprise practically starved the new settlers back to the city slums Then the Army introduced a system of irrigation, and when this was in working order more settlers destitute persons but with an ordinary farm labourer's knowledge of agricul-ture-were introduced This was about four years ago and for the most part the new colonists are doing well It is worth while noting the terms upon which farms were allocated to settlers

To these men the land was sold under contract at 100 dollars or 220 acting, the acre plus the cost of any improvement,) such as buildings that might exist upon each twenty acre lot this purchase money was made a cable in equal annual Hist ailments spread over a period of twenty years to which was added in forest on deferred payments at the rate of 5 per cent Further, chattels such as horses stock implements, etc, were sold to the colonists upon a file tear by tem under which the price of them was payable in equal annual instalments to which is added interest upon all unpaid balances at the rate of 0 per cent per annum to guard itself it. must loSs also the Army took a mortgage or some analogous security, over all fire and dead stock thus provided It was further agreed that no title should be given to the land until all payments were completed and that any settler who neglected to fulfil his obligations could be ejected after notice and his family and all upon it seized to satisfy his debt

All this Is stringent and business-like Brough, but in practice the authorities, being sure of the increasing value of their security, are quite content to allow the payment of instalments to stand over, always, of course, subject to the interest And says Mr Haggard, "not to mince matters, the experiment has proved a great success " The colonists are content and grateful They have happy homes, healthy families, pleasant surroundings, plenty to eat and drink, and a reasonable certainty of becoming prosperous farmera Instead of labourers living from hand to mouth Their children are educated in the local school the colonists can buy all the necessities of life in a co-operative store or In ordinary shops and they have a ready market for their produce There is no religious pressure exercised by the Army, and the community includes persons belonging to various churches, Protestant and Roman Catholic There are elements of difficulty in the constitution of the colony, as, for instance, the natural desire of the settlers to obtain more land as the purchase of their present holdings is completed and the equally natural desire of their sons to secure farms of their own as they grow up The area is limited, and though an additional 170 acres has been purchased, it will not be long before Romle Is occupied to its utmost capacity But sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof Meanwhile, hear the conclusion of the whole

matter -

From the sworn figures furnished and the statements made to me, it appears that the present financial condition of the Port 1 once colony is as follows -The Salvation Army incurred a loss upon the first settlement of about 27,U00dol, or £3!00, while the second settlement shows them to have a surplus In their favour of GOOde, or £1.100 The colonists here on equity "that is a surf 10s of assets over all hotel

licensees above At COOdol or about £8300 that is, an average of something over 20dol, or £400 each The Salvation Army has expended for the purchase of land and for the establishment and maintenance of

the "colony" OlOOOilol or about £12,00, to which must be added the loss incurred In the first abortive settlement of 2",G00Jol, or a. 400 pay nearly £18 0 0 in all Per contra the value of land, Improv ementa live stock outfit, etc, is appraised at 113 Ode! or nearly £2 000 most of which increment, however, goes to the colonists

It will, of course be noticed in regard to this colony at Port Ilomlo that the settlement was a failure until a system of irrigation had been established and it would perhaps be sent to conclude from this that it would be useless even to give land which is dependent upon uncertain rainfall to the purposes of colonisation If 18 families could not find a Um lihood in the rich but uncertainly watered soil of Port Romlo, we cannot expect 5000 families to turn a wilderness into a collection of smiling and prosperous farms If we want the colonists we must give them a fair chance of success And next will be observed the btinlnofaslllie principles on which the flourishing settlement of Fort Rome is now established there is no pauperising and every man has a chance of doing well for himself and his family, if only he exercises reasonable care And it certainly will not escape obsen allow that here we have an opportunity "I on to the poor man who can work and who is willing to work with the man who can work, but prefers to beg the world has little sympathy but everybody wants to give a helping hand to the honest unemployed ""especially in Australia where we want population of the right stamp The "males land to use General Booths strik-ing phrase was the landless man"