ORGANISATION OF INDUSTRY. 505 



depend upon the ascertainment of the means and courses of 

 action by which the same can be most readily and efficiently 

 carried out. In England there is congestion both of capital 

 and labour. Under suitable conditions, under some such 

 conditions as I will presently refer to, this Australian circle of 

 ours may become the very home of capital, and it may also 

 become the homes of milhone who cannot find employment, 

 or suitable employment, in the Englisli Isles. The idle 

 capital, and the unemployed numbers it can so amply provide 

 for, can be profitably and happily employed in other circles 

 of industry in the foreign land or in the home land. Place a 

 number of men within a circle of fairly productive country of 

 an area in suitable proportion to numbers, organised so far 

 that they are selected from the employments which admit of 

 their cari'ying on agriculture and the lower branches of manu- 

 facturing work, and giving them but a limited exchange only 

 with other countries, districts, or circles for some commodities 

 which they do not produce, that community will, I apprehend, 

 under co-operative conditions only, become self-supporting, 

 and under more favourable conditions it will develop into a 

 prosperous community. Such a necessary result is indicated 

 by the success which has attended the beggar colonies of 

 Holland and the labour colonies of Germany. The beggar 

 colony of Frederiksoord, in Holland, is described by Herbert 

 Mills as " a paradise in the middle of a wilderness." He tells 

 us that he passed " from a dreary moorland, where the soil 

 was too poor to grow heather or ling except in small patches, 

 to a land laden with roses and violetss a contented, industrious 

 peasantry, a long succession of compact fruitful farms, good 

 roads shaded by trees, and excellent schools for the education 

 of the young." " Perhaps," he says, " it was the effect of the 

 sudden change, but I felt as if I had entered the gates of the 

 promised land when I entered the domain at Frederiksoord. 

 . . . . This place was established by private enter- 

 prise Where the place now exists all was heath, 



and it was commenced with the settlement of a few poor 

 families." There are other beggar colonies under the control 

 of the Dutch Government where employment is provided for 

 beggars and vagrants, subjected to the constraint of com- 

 pulsory labour. They are described as enormous colonies 

 both of agriculture and manufactures. Although these 

 beggar colonies are not entirely self-supporting (full endea- 

 vours have not been made to make them so), their results — 

 the success attending the labour colonies of Germany, which 



