Like most people in Newfoundland, these trustees were worried. Too many people had been forced to take dole because there was no work. The dole provided about 27 cents a day for each person.¹ This was not enough money to live on. Many people were starving to death. The trustees hoped that dole money could be used to give people a way to support themselves. The Commission of Government gave the trustees about two years' worth of dole money for ten families. The trustees were to help the ten families set up a farming community, buy supplies, keep track of spending and look after the settlers until they could support themselves.

After the trustees took over the project, we hear nothing more about William Lidstone. His name is never mentioned in any of the reports about Markland. He did not help to make decisions. It seems as if he was treated like all the other men who were chosen for this project.

Part Three
Setting up Markland

In those days, there was no Trans-Canada Highway. Most of the roads ran between outports. The trustees looked for land that could be farmed. They wanted land near the railway so that equipment and supplies could be brought in. They found a place near the Whitbourne railway station, on a road that ran from Whitbourne to Colinet. Almost no one lived on this land. Some rivers ran through it. The rivers could power sawmills.

The project was given about 39 square miles of land along the road between Whitbourne and Colinet. The land was marshy, but it was dotted with islands of higher land that could be farmed. There were not many rocks in the ground. Parts of the land had been cut over for timber, but it needed to be cleared for farming. The trustees called this place Markland.

At the end of April 1934, the first ten men left St. John's to go to Markland. Thomas Lodge was one of the well-dressed men who came to see them off. He had come from England to Newfoundland to serve as a commissioner in the Commission of Government. Later, when Thomas Lodge wrote a book about Newfoundland, he said that he had been worried when he saw those men. To him, they were: