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make the settlement a success. Amongst our number we have farm labourers, ploughmen, bushmen, carpenters, wheelwrights, blacksmiths, sawyers, engine-drivers, and others, we should all work together as we know each other, and the thirty of us could make a good living for ourselves and families." Prior to my inspection of Pitt Town I had been informed .that the settlement was a complete failure. I must confess it is not the success I should like to see it, still there is no reason why it should be a complete failure. In my opinion all that is required is to transfer to better land twothirds of the present settlers, and I am assured there is a very large area of good land in the colony suitable for settlement. If this was done, and about thirty of the present settlers allowed to remain, the average area for each settler would then only be about seventy-one acres, by no means a large amount considering the quality of the soil. The liabilities, however, in connection with the settlement are large, for in addition to the expenditure already alluded to —namely, £6,705 —the Government had advanced to the Board a further sum of £750 for the purpose of carrying on the work. This amount I understood the Board had in hand at the time of my visit, but it will doubtless be expended by the end of June, thus making the total cost £7,455, or equivalent to an advance of nearly £84 15s. per settler. I have no doubt, however, that should the matter be properly represented to the Hon. the Minister of Lands that gentleman will see that no settler is unduly burdened with debt, as I am convinced the Minister is most anxious to see the settlement eventually a success after the expenditure which has been incurred upon it ; and here I might perhaps he allowed to remark that there are other matters to take into consideration in connection with land settlement beyond the mere question of pounds shillings and pence. Think of the 275 children now on the land, surely it would be a fatal mistake for the parents of these children to be compelled to go back again Co town life. Pitt Town was an experiment, and all experiments cost money, but wisdom is generally gained thereby, and this lesson is learnt: that in order to promote settlements which shall be financially a success three essentials are requisite —namely, good land, right localities, and an industrious class of settlers. The'settlement at Wilberforce was started on co-operative principes by forty settlers placing in a common fund £10 each. The amount was banked to the credit of the settlement, and operated on by the Board of Control. This money had to be expended before any loan was obtained from Government. An area of 1,630 acres, originally a portion of the Wilberforce Common, was set aside for the purpose of this settlement. The land is mixed bush, in many parts heavily timbered with ironbark, box, and gum. This being a co-operative settlement, when it was first started a store was erected, and each family supplied from it. Settlers were allowed to draw for food and clothing goods to the value of 6s. per week for each enrolled member, 4s. per week for his wife, and Is. per week for each child up to the age of fourteen years. From their number the settlers nominated a superintendent, whose appointment had to be approved by the Board of Control, but from the first there appears to have been no check as to whether the men worked or not. Bach man did what he thought was right for himself. They had nothing in common, they were taken from the town, sent away in a body, perfect strangers to each other, and it is no wonder they were unable to make the settlement a success; the wonder would have been if they had done so. The Wilberforce Labour Settlement is not now co-operative. The land has been subdivided and allotted to the settlers. In company with J. J. Paine, Esq., Mayor of Windsor, and other members of the Board of Control, I paid a visit of inspection to this settlement on the 3rd May. The total-number of souls is eighty-nine—namely, twenty married men and women, nine single men, and forty children. No school buildings have yet been erected, but there is a school about two miles distant, at which some of the elder children attend. As a rule, the settlers speak hopefully of their future prospects. I interviewed several. The first I saw was a jeweller by occupation. He said, " I have a wife and seven children, and draw at the rate of 15s. per week for food. I have at present to depend on friends for clothing. I hold 35 acres, but that is not sufficient. If I had 80 acres I think I should succeed very well." J. G. said, "I am single, and a stonemason by trade; I hold 35 acres, and think I can get on fairly well. lam going to put in fruit-trees this year, and after a little I intend to marry and settle down." W. E. said, "I am married, and have five children; I am a carpenter, and hold 42 acres, but lam anxious to get a little more. I have only been here three months, but I have 2 acres cleared, a cottage built, and I have made the largest dam in the settlement, it is 16ft. square and 10ft. deep. lam doing very well, and intend to remain here." L. B. said, " I am married, and have four children; I receive rations to the value of 13s. per week; I make that do with the vegetables, &c, I grow in my garden; I am getting on very well; I have made up my mind to make this my home, and intend to do so. If work and a willing mind can do it, my home shall not be a failure." J. C. said, " I am single, and hold 45 acres; I have acres cleared and partly ploughed ; I have the materials for a cottage, and intend to settle ; I am quite contented, and getting on very well, but if rain came more frequently we should all do much better." C. E. said, " I am married, and have six children; I am doing as well as I possibly can ; I have a cow and pig and ninety head of poultry ; my improvements were valued at £115 by the surveyor, and this was all my own work. During the last few months I have cleared 4 acres ; I intend to i-emain here, and do my best." I think it is evident that this settlement at Wilberforce is more likely to succeed under the present individual effort of working than under the system formerly in existence. Co-operative settlements are all very well, and may be made a great success when all the settlers are known to each other, and when they all agree "to work together, but this agreement of working together must be.