RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 185 



the roads, ditches and other reclamation works necessary to make 

 the land accessible and cultivatable, for developing and supplying 

 timber, coal, rower, telephone and other services to settlers for their 

 domestic use, for organising facilities for purchasing, marketing and 

 other co-operative activities, and for securing any other improvement 

 or services necessary for the efficient organization and development 

 of any community to be colonized on the location." 



The project had to offer a reasonable presumption that the soil 

 and other physical conditions, and the markets and other economic 

 conditions, would permit of immediate, continuous, permanent and 

 profitable employment for the settlers. A colonization fund of $50,- 

 000,000 was proposed for the purpose. The Hon. Robert Grosser, 

 in evidence before the committee on the bill, referred to the "dog's 

 life" of the western settler without any community co-operation. 

 The land under the scheme would remain government property, 

 and tenants would pay interest on the land value and improvements. 



The administrative functions of most of the land departments 

 of the Australian states are to some extent decentralized, by a divi- 

 sion of states into districts, in each of which there is a land office 

 under the management of a land officer. Under this decentralization 

 scheme it is possible to properly classify the lands according to situ- 

 ation, character of soil, etc. In all the states Acts have been passed 

 to facilitate the purchase of alienated lands for the purpose of improv- 

 ing and re-settling them. Under the closer settlement acts of the 

 Australian states, 2,717,463 acres of land in the Commonwealth 

 have been acquired at a cost of $51,553,145, and of these 2,223,808 

 have been allotted in farms. The settlement of village communities 

 is provided for, but comparatively little has been done in this respect. 

 Proposals have been put forward during the past year to appoint 

 district surveyors to prepare more detailed surveys and plans in ad- 

 vance of settlement, as has been advocated in this report. 



In New Zealand there is an interesting village settlement system , 

 designed to enable labourers to acquire small holdings varying from 

 1 to 100 acres, on which to erect their homes near to their work, but 

 there has not been much advance made in extending this system. 



In South American states community settlement under govern- 

 ment control and assisted by government organization has met with 

 some success. The general land law of Argentina (1903) relates to 

 the founding of colonies and towns and provides that land has to be 

 surveyed, classified and planned, and that the government executive 

 "shall reserve such tracts as may be found appropriate for the founding 



