Some Considerations as to the Benefit to be Derived by the Colony from Settlements of Pensioners, By Captain Daveney, Officer Paying Imperial Pensions in Auckland.

It is presumed that Government could, during the present depression, purchase from the Natives at Te Kuiti a block of land of 50,000 acres, fit for the settlement of Imperial Pensioners, for the sum of £10,000, this being at the rate of four (4) shillings per acre.

Taking the rate laid down by Sir E. Walter of £25 per man as average amount to be paid to each pensioner, this would make an annual payment to these men of £25,000: money to be spent in the settlement.

The Imperial Government allows to the Colonial Authorities for the trouble and expense of disbursing these moneys 3 per cent.; this would amount to £750 per annum, so that in about 13 years Government would receive back the whole of the original cost of the land.

In the laying out of the Village or Township for such a prosperous settlement, it is but natural to suppose that very good prices would be obtained for each site, because 1,000 pensioners means 1,000 wives and say from 2,000 to 3000 children, consequently the settlement would contain from 4,000 to 5,000 souls. The money obtained from these sales would more than recoup all moneys spent by Government in surveying and in laying out the roads within the settlement.

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By the scheme which Lord Sandhurst has submitted to the War Office to enable a pensioner to commute 6d. per diem of his pension, for the purpose of colonization, he would receive during the first year in the Colony, the sum of £176. This money is to be applied towards passage, buildings, implements, seed, stock, and maintenance for the first year; therefore supposing the settlement to contain 1,000 men, the enormous sum of £176,000 would be spent during the year, and this does not include the private means each pensioner may possess.

In a letter from a warrant officer on leave from India, to the Government of this Colony, it is shown that his own pension would be £216 per annum, and that many of his comrades had requested him to find out the details of what they might expect should they make New Zealand their home. The pensions of these men average £100 per annum, and as a rule they possess some private capital. Definite and distinct information on this subject is looked for from many would-be settlers.

The passage of a pensioner from India is paid by the State. It is the privilege of a soldier to elect to come to a Colony instead of returning to England.

Very many men from the Royal Irish Constabulary, whose pensions vary from £70 to £90 per annum, would willingly make this Colony their home, provided some inducement was offered to them to this effect

It must be borne in mind that the pensioner of the present day is a very superior man to the one of the olden times. For years past no man has been taken on for his second period towards pension, whose character was not good, and sobriety is a sine qua non. All are now taught trades, and the school is an institution in every regiment, so that a most intelligent class of settlers would be introduced.

As regards the manhood of the offspring of pensioners, those who are sceptical about the matter should visit the pensioner settlements inaugurated by Sir George Grey, and they will find that the most robust and stalwart citizens of this Colony are the descendants of those pensioners. How could it be otherwise, seeing that only the fittest of the manhood of Great Britain and Ireland, who have served the State for 21 years in all climes, survive to receive pensions, and that these are their descendants.

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The Colony has completed at great expense the railway as far as Te Kuiti, some 35 miles beyond Te Awamutu, and to all appearance years will elapse before it is further extended. The land is totally uncultivated and belongs to Natives, consequently there can be no traffic on it to repay the enormous outlay incurred. But should the proposed pensioner settlement be located near or at Kuiti, then that which seemingly was a most unprofitable undertaking, would at once be converted into perhaps a paying concern.