Village Settlement: New Era

New Era was established on 25 April 1894 and was the second of the village settlements to dissolve, doing so in March 1896. New Era's collapse was due to the unsuitability of the land chosen for the settlement (it was quite uneven), disputes between the villagers and the delay in installing a pumping plant. The village's pump did not arrive until mid-1895 and so the settlement struggled for over a year without irrigation. When the pump arrived, the villagers, having no idea about irrigation practices, placed it in a poor position. They were perhaps mislead by high river levels during the winter or overly cautious about the possibility of the pumping station being flooded in their choice of site. New Era was the first settlement visited by Samuel McIntosh after he was appointed village settlement expert by the government in February 1896, but by this time it was too late. McIntosh found a poor pumping plant, insufficient crops sewn and no livestock. He recommended that the settlement be abandoned.