INTO A NEW WORLD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1073, 11 March 1911, Page 10

INTO A NEW WORLD.

; EMI GRANTS FOR.. NEW. ZEALAND. ; .VAGUE BUT HOPEFUL, ■■■ [BY EVEI/TN Tsitt.] (For The Dominion;);; ;• i < "1 5 haven't had. any- sleep for three Bights," e&id a pleasant motherly littlo woman in a corner of tho carriage. ''When you are setting off on a great long journey ■•■like' this, your family and all, you get that worried you can't sleep." '; Tho other voyagers in tho carriage agreed it was so. Xono of them had 'bcon ablo to sleep the night More, ,and fs for, having breakfast, well—"you * can't eat whenyou're going on a journey." At th'u parcels were produced, and with biscuits and sandwiches tho outlook became more cheerful, while tho littlo woman explained that it was not till tho last she could believe sho was really going. Not till she actually stood on the station. ■ ' By this timo we were all very friendly, the littlo company in tho cross-way compartment of tho long special train carry■m" tho hundreds of third-class passengets and their friends down to Tilbury, /whore tho Athemc ,\vri> lying ready lor Even in a fast .boat-train that 22-milo journey is apt to bo long, and/very tedivuS, and as tor Tilbury itself, it is the Inst word in dreariness. They say tho sue seldom shines on London, for fear of'having to see that wide-grey stretch at the curve of tho river whero the tido flows between low-lyiDg banks, and not all tho shipping, the great liners, thosmall riv'or craft with their red-brown eails,' not.-i even the.', men-of-war, can' relieve •' from melancholy gloom, so it was just as well that the passengers were companionable and talkative, exchanging appropriate littlo jokes with each other. But if the appearance of Tilbury, and the tedium of the usual long delay there make new orrivals very sorry to bo in England, it is also an excellent fnrcwelling place.,No one could possibly bo sorry, to leave Tilbury, or anything but congratulatory of friends who had to go, and it may bo that partly accounted lor the cheerfulness of those who havo just ' gailed down the Thames in heavy drifting rain, foi' the opon eso. and far-off Wellington. . It was a fine proccssion that formed on tho platform at the station and filed through to - tho tenders waiting at the, ; wharf.' where the company -was roughly, classified as "passengers with .families, , without," those who taking their' fino bonny children with them quit©' filling ono tender. A very 6hort journey brought the boats to the 6ide of tho great vessel, which had had to wako up at three o'clock in the* morning to catch tho tide and steam out of the dock,' anc' now appeared to have gone to sleep again so quiet was it, so littlo sign of life , was thero, till with much manoeuvring tlu gangway was run up and the procession to the deck began, ' "single men first/' It was a ver) leisurely process, this embarkation, for the third-class passengers'had had to come down early in tho day, and not till all their friends had left the ship again were the tenders ready to bring on the first and secondMass passengers, who wero small as to numbers and bulky as to luggage.. .So without any flurry the hundreds who completely filled tho third-class accommodation proceeded to settle themselves. • The "single men" class, a very large one, included ,tho fifty boys ages -of'sixteen and.eighteen who are being taken" Out to find'work and gain experience on tho farms, while among tho fifty girls going out (for domestic service was a small company going to situations' for which they had already- been booked bv a Canterbury syndicate. A Hawke's Bay syndicate has from timo to time .brought out numbers of girls, but this i^tihoifirst'time (that the new Canterbury syndicate has dono so. The girls go out under the caro of a matron, wbo, also exercises supervision over the thirtyfour girls going with assisted', passages. There,is plenty of time to talk to -the passengers here and there, and they are' very ready'and'willing to. talk about their plans. ... Tho curious thing is,- and it has proved the same with other contingents of emigrants,, that'it-is so hard to. find any who are going to settle on the land. Among those single men there were of course assisted emigrants going to farm-work, and at least one family was going with tho same purpose, bnt'among those one talks to it is qltfays cityJjenjployment that they are locking for; may - bo. vague about tho nature of that work, but they are definite -enough ' about' one thing— they are not going on. the land. This, of course,' may be pure chance, or it- may .. be that the greater inducements offered by. other colonies are . attracting the .farmers, that it is by our climate and-our social-'conditions that we attract "emigrants from the English towns. Ono exception was a young man whoso brother in England, nineteen years of age, is ! earning twelve shillings a week as a farm labourer, and who has made up his mind that he himself will do better'than that. Ho has an idea that Southland is a good district to go to, and will certainly, go south. Ono man who had found- permanent work in,.a.-New Zealanditown.findl• hail come back for his -family; of' fine' sturdy children, explained that one had to emigrate. England was played, out, and . there' was no chance for men of his trade; "Thero is no chance for the boys," said a mother, who'was taking a. son to seek his fortune. "England is too crowdcd. There's no room on the land here." "I; camo over to England from the Con? tineiit to go into business," said' an« other, "but I don't, like it, and I'.'havo friends in New Zealand who all advise mo to,go out. They say . I can get on .well in . business there." Most were rather vague as to their -reasons for choosing New Zealand when they decided to. emigrate. One woman said that a number of her. friends had gono to Canada, and were coming back after a

very, short time. They could not bear it, arid were now going to' try Australia.- , ; .'!Yes," chipped in a man with a subi lime: disregard of Canada's official state-

ments; "Canada's too 'crowded. There'll soon. be no room there."

.The'climate, it seemed, was New Zealand's great .asset. Australia offered land, but Australia was reputed to be very hot. They'would try New Znaland first/said ope conplc. And if they did not get on well there they could always go back to Australia. One fancies that a good many probably have that idea of coining to seek a fortune on. the other side of the world, and give, New Zealand the first chance with an idea of trying. Australia later on it New Zealand prove disappointing. Looking from England Tight across tho world, the distance between Australia and New Zealand probably seems to them comparatively. small, and any Australian Stato caty'of "access.

They were not going to an unknown land. As to that they were very emphatic, and one after another spoke of friends in the Dominion who hadgoneout a year or so beforehand had written them to come, tho surest proof of their own satisfaction.

Here was: a husband going out to join friends, and hoping to send very soon for lib wife to him. Hero was a mother with her family going to join her husband. who was doing very .well in one of tho larger towns.

"It has been a long time to wait," she said, "and this is never going to happen again. If 'Father' goes away from New Zealand he has got to take 'Little Mother' with him, and the family is not going to be left behind."

It is to ba hoped "Father" will not go away from New Zealand in that case, for the family are promising young colonists, and "Little Mother" a decidcd acquisition. Two sisters, again, and a friend, wero going out becanso a third sister had been in scrvico in Now Zealand for a venr, and liked it so well she wanted them to follow her.

Somo of those people are ipmarkablv .Tell informed on colonial matters. A Now Zealand girl who has just been to a district in the Highlands from which many Scotchmen have emigrated to New Zealand, has been astonished at the way t.hcy have studied books relating to fhc Dominion, and tho ' detailed knowledge they display, but some of the emigrants are very vaguo and ignorant as'to cssQntial facts,'appearing to trust entirely to the judgment of their friends already on tho ppot. Ono met people going to Wellington who', had not even."heard that living is maraviexpensive -thero than in" other inland towns; who had never heard

of the .flourishing--provincial.centres; and who regarded Sydney as tho alternative to Wellington.. - I'or all -their lirm beliof iii, tho good fortune to'which they are going, and tho happier conditions of'the new land, they are vary glad to talk with anyone from ;I\«w .Ztialawl.•«,,< •„.*• ■ ."I .am so. pleased to hava-htuhja talk with you," said one womanly,Fa had been looking bright all tho tilnfc." * 'It has cheered me very much."

• ' Ooq w:ishes that a word "of could come at the other end also. "IJJilJiy wo going to friends, biit probably-tew have friends in Wellington itself, and one foels that tho suggestion made before is a good one, that there should in Wellington be a settler's welcome committee to take caro that a-hearty .welcome is given to these men and women aijcl,, children who are going out to New Zealand for tho good.of.thomselves aud for the good of the Dominion; They ai'o met by officials, of •course,"l>ut«somethings- moro than an official wblcomo* is required.