The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1893. THE IMMIGRANTS FROM AUSTRALIA.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2901, 17 February 1893, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1893. THE IMMIGRANTS FROM AUSTRALIA.

While New Zealand is receiving a great influx of population, the working part of which is absorbed as fast as it arrives by the demand for labor, some other country or countries must of course be losing population. Victoria seems to be the greatest sufferer in this respect, and the continued exodus is causing some anxiety in that colony. During last November and December and half of January one steamship company carried from Melbourne to New Zealand 1230 passengers in the steerage alone, and, unlike the steerage passengers of the previous years, they took with them luggage and furniture to the amount of 200 tons. The other line of steamers and the numerous sailing vessels have also carried their quota, and there have been besides a large number of departure! from Victoria to the other colonies. The enquiries that have been made into the causes of the exodus included an investigation by a reporter of the "Argus" into the character of thje peeple who are leaving, the report of which gives us some very interesting information. The reporter secured .a passage in the s.s. Manapouri en her last trip from Melbourne to New Zealand and mingled witli thejpassengers as far as Hobart. There were in the steerage 106 passengers — six for Hobart and 100 for New Zealand. The classification of those for New Zealand was :—Women and children going home or to visit friends, 18; men returning home or on business, 21; men emigrating for work, 50; women and children with emigrants; 11. If all the 50 men seeking employment settle in New Zealand they [ will be followed by more women and j children. They comprised one farmer, two contractors, a surveyor, a civil on- j gineer, two bank clerks, one ironmonger, three painters, ten carpenters, twelve farm hands, five miners, one sailor, and 11 miscellaneous. Of the fifty, only one, a typical sundowner, could be described as a man who could well be spared. As he had not paid his passage, he was " dumped ", at Hobart. Ihe other emigrants /were all desirable colonists, people whose loss is to be deplored. The farmer said be had sold out of a 400 acre holding in the Goulburn Valley. He had been doing fairly well there considering the circumstances of the colony—that was, its fiscal policy and uncertain sea sons, but had come to think he would improve his position on New Zealand soil, where, as he understood it, the farmer was not so heavily handicapped, and h*d more reliable seasons. Of the two contractors, one had made a tidy turn of money at bluestone quarrying, but lost it in a bank failure. With a little money he had saved from the wreck he was now on bis way to try prospecting in New Zealaud. The other contractor wes formerly a sawmiller and wood-worker in New Zealand, and had been ruined by two years in Victoria. ; The ten carpenters were all fine specimens of the artisan class—strong, sober, intelligent men, most of whom had passed through very trying vidwitudw during tho

last year or two Without exception the men were prepared to take what work they could get on arriving in New Zealand, and looked to this colony as a place wherein they would have opportunities to re-establish the homes they had broken up in Australia. We think the influx of such immigrants need not be received with apprehension. The reports from the ports of arrival show that there are no loafers among the immigrants; they make no appeals for benevolence, but simply enquire where work is to be had and go straight off to take it.