TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 717 



5. Home Colonisation. By the Rov. Heebekt V. Mills. 



I. The necessity for work of a useful, self-supportinj^ kind for the able-bodied 

 unemployed poor. Badness of the present methods of relief. We pauperise men 

 ^villing to work. The financial loss to the community, and the moral loss of the 

 present sy-stom. 



II. Explicit account of our proposal. Its principle : — The organisation of men 

 and women thrown out of employment into colonies or industrial villages where 

 they can supply each other's needs. Details: — -Within the colony there must be 

 (1) agricultural work, (2) manufacturing work ; (3) it must be controlled by a 

 director. It must produce and consume its own products as far as possible. It must 

 therefore produce chiefly the necessarie.s of life — food, clothing, and shelter. Out- 

 line of proposed industrial village. How the workers will obtain the necessaries of 

 life ; how they will obtain luxuries ; how they will be induced to consume their 

 own products ; how they will extend their own borders so as to provide for chil- 

 dren and an increasing popidation. 



III. Difficulties and possibility of carrying out this plan successfully. 



.This idea is not novel. It has hitherto been the germ and seed plot of civilisa- 

 tion. It is not difficult for average men to obtain tlie necessaries of life out of an 

 average soil. What the inhabitants accomplish on the Isle of St. Kilda in spite of 

 bad climate, scanty soil, and without modern tools and implements. 



The success of the self-contained South American colonies, and the English 

 villages of the last century. What has been done at Frederiksoord. 



The great difficulty of previous attempts to give work to the unemployed has 

 been to find a market for the sale of the produce. We shall scarcely experience 

 this difficulty. 



The diflierence between this and Socialistic schemes. The difference between 

 this and Feargus O'Connor's scheme. The co-operative nature of this efiort. 



IV. Advantages of Home Colonisation to the general community. Less help- 

 less and hopeless poverty. Fewer aged poor to be maintainedat the public 

 expense. We shall have a true ' labour test ' for idlers, and can get our knaves 

 and dastards arrested, and take up a more initiative policy for the suppression of 

 vagabondage. We shall reduce the number of temptations towards prostitution 

 and crime. A contented working-class, having a direct interest in the soil, would 

 be our best defence in time of war. 



6. Third Report of the Committee on the best methods of ascertaining and 

 measuring Variations in the Vahie of the Monetary Standard. — See 

 Reports, p. 138. 



7. Report of the Committee appointed to inquire and report as to the Statis- 



tical Data available for determining the amount of the Precious Metals 

 in use as Money in the principal countries, the chief forms in which the 

 Money is employed, and the amount annually used in the Arts. — See 

 Reports, p. 1G4. 



