MR.  MATHER’S  SCHEME

I4I

satisfactory  number  of  those  emigrated  appear  to  have
made  a  successful  start  in  the  New  World.
The  reports  of  two  continental  colonies  designed  to
train  and  utilise  the  labour  of  selected  able-bodied  men,
one  at  Wortel  in  Belgium,  the  other  at  La  Chalmelle
near  Paris,  seem  to  point  to  the  same  conclusion,  that
such  colonies  cannot  be  maintained  except  at  considerable ­
  expense.
12.  Mr.  Mather's  Scheme  of  Training  and
Agricultural  Colonies.
If  it  is  once  clearly  recognised  that  all  present  evidence
tends  to  the  conclusion  that  neither  open  colonies  nor
selected  colonies  for  training  or  for  productive  work  can
be  made  self-supporting,  or  nearly  so,  the  public  will  be
in  a  position  to  judge  of  the  utility  of  this  mode  of
dealing  with  “  the  unemployed.”  Unfortunately  even
social  reformers  so  competent  as  Mr.  Mather,  whose
scheme  is  distinctly  the  most  statesmanlike  of  those  yet
conceived,  linger  under  the  impression  that  “  it  is  necessary
to  recognise  the  fact  that  the  labour  of  any  able-bodied
man  upon  land,  can,  under  proper  directions  and  conditions, ­
  be  of  at  least  an  equal  value  to  the  cost  of  his
maintenance.”  Mr.  Mather’s  scheme  of  Farm  Training
Colonies  is  briefly  this:  County  Councils  with  money
advanced  by  the  State  are  to  acquire  land  in  each  county
suitable  for  Training  Colonies,  and  to  erect  buildings  to
accommodate  as  many  men  as  can  be  supported  on  the
land,  single  men  or  married  couples.  The  staple  work
is  to  be  agricultural,  partly  in  reclaiming  land  capable
of  cultivation  when  reclaimed,  partly  in  the  utilisation  of
good  land  by  manual  labour  for  arable-dairying,  and