488 . STUDIES, SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL CHAP. 



near at hand. No work permanently injurious to health 

 would be permitted ; while the alternations of out-door 

 and indoor work, together with the fact that every worker 

 would be working for himself, for his family, and for a 

 community of which he formed an integral part on an 

 equality with all his fellow- workers, would give a new 

 interest to labour similar to that which every gardener 

 feels in growing vegetables for his own table, and every 

 mechanic in fitting up some useful article in his own 

 house. Then again, while living in and surrounded by 

 the country and enjoying all the advantages and pleasures 

 of country life, a community of five thousand persons 

 would possess in themselves the means of supplying most 

 of the relaxations and enjoyments of the town, such as 

 music, theatricals, clubs, reading rooms, and every form of 

 healthy social intercourse. 



How to Establish Go-operative Communities. 



This is not the place to go into the minute details of 

 the establishment of such communities, but a few words 

 as to ways and means may be considered necessary. 



Mr. Mills has estimated that the capital required to 

 buy the land and start such a colony, would not exceed 

 two years' poor-rates of a Union where there are an equal 

 number of paupers. But there is really no necessity for 

 buying the land. It might be taken where required at a 

 fair valuation and paid for by means of a terminable 

 rental, similar to that by which Irish tenants have been 

 enabled to purchase their farms ; but in this case the 

 county would be the purchaser, not an individual, and 

 after the first year, or perhaps two years, this rent-charge 

 would be easily payable by the colony. The capital 

 needed for buildings, machinery, and one year's partial 

 subsistence, should be furnished, half by the County or 

 Union, and half by the Government, free of interest, but 

 to be repaid by instalments to commence after, say, five 

 or ten years. It would really be to the advantage of the 

 community at large 'to give this capital, since it would 

 inevitably lead to the abolition of unemployment and of 



