MIGRATION TO N.Z.

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 13, 19 May 1939, Page 9

MIGRATION TO N.Z.

. 0 A FAR-SEEING OBSERVED IN 1874 It is mentioned in the New Zealand Centennial News that among most interesting manuscript* made available for copying as a direct result of the letter of Mi James Thorn, M.P. (> published in the Lon. . don Times, are the four diaries kept by Christopher Holloway during a tour of New Zealand in 1874. The son, Rev. W. J. Holloway of Newbury Berkshire, England, has blandly lent'these diaries to the KaHistorical Committee. Christopher Holloway came out to "New Zealand at the expense, of its •Government as ths representative of the agricultural labourers of England, people who certainly had more to gain by migrating than, any other section of the English population. After extensive 'trips through the the investigator proved his when he met an r.ssembly of well-to-do gentlemen, in Duned!n en 10th April, 1574; the political he combated had e a surprisingly modern flavour. Here is a passage (without alteration of the text): "Gave my promis'd "ddress in the Masonic Hall this evening, the Mayor in the chair, to a crowded ; audience, subject of the address, 'My upon New Zealand as a Field for Emigration.' The audience upon the whole gave me a fair zm\ .candid hearing and at the ciose <i jny address put to me so-v. ra! c-nv-■£ions, several of them not bearing -,upon the .subject at all. . . I must say with reference to this niecthiLj' .that I was astonished at the e;-:ces~ i cfi-e selfishness of these men. Hero i s one of the finest countries in tne world —as large in extent ..s the United Kingdom } with the exception of 1,000,000 acres —possessing one at the healthiest climates in the wciid —n country everywhere well watered —rich in mineral resources, and a soil is vei T productive—with a pojlflß'ion of only about ?ol\ooo V- : people, (no more than we have in the town of Birmingham), 3-et if its resources were properly developed is capabie of sustaining ten or tvelva millions of people. Yet these fel fish men would have us believe that the .. nu.ntry is not in so prosperous a state \ij&,s it is represented to be, that its present prosperity is only the effect .of borrowed money—and that :.s soon -as the money is spent and the puLlic works are finished — then there will come a reaction, and that the frfrojitcst poverty and distress ill fol-. Jow. Poor deluded men never was ■tilere a greater delusion —labn>ir pro- ' <hiccd capital and capital means an increase of trade and commerce . . . population increase. Labour will inodkrvic also, and the future prosperity «f the country will be realised."