BOY IMMIGRATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1419, 22 April 1912, Page 8

BOY IMMIGRATION.

MR, SEDGAVICK'S OPERATIONS,

■ At the present time Mr. T. E. Sedgwick is working in London preparing for further drafts of * boys to New Zealand or other part? of tho Empire. A glance at one of the application forms which the boys are required to fill in shows that Mr , . Sedgwick is not painting the prospects in the colonies any particularly ro;y hue. Various clauses in the form' run as under:—"Only farm work is available for lads proceeding to the colonies. . . . Tho work will Iks found hard, dull, and monotonous, tho. hours being long and Sunday work unavoidable; also, lads will have to do housework when required. . . . The life is lonely; the neighbours are often miles apart, and there are no lights, streets, .or places of amusement, sometimes within one hundred miles. . . . Although tho food and prospects aro good, only willing, hard workers succeed, but permanent jobs and good treatment will be guaranteed to ull sent out." ,

Writing to Mr. E. C. Jack, Dominion secretary of Ike farmers' Union, Mr. Sedgwiek says that the impossibility of adequately duplicating the Government's system of supervision, and tlie refusal of the shipping companies to grant his committee tho same rates of passage as they give to. the Government have made tho committee decide to do nothing more in the direction of getting out more lads to New Zealand until.the New Zealand Govcrnment'undertakes to adopt them as before. This method not only safeguards the lads and their employers' interests by suiting the boy to the situation and apprenticeship, but it protects labour by preventing, the, lads drifting up to .the towns Wore they have become acclimatised to rural life. Meanwhile, Mr. S'edgwick adds, lie has a waiting list of .JL'o in Hocith London', and, after a meeting, 20D lads enrolled themselves as postulants. The idea is also being developed in various parts of England, and 101)0 lads could easily lie got. Mr. Sedgwicl; says he is ruthlessly rejecting all those who are too old, too small, short-sighted, affected by nicotine, or otherwise nnwordiy of tho prospects of life in New Zealand, and ruin? the lads plenty of time on. a miitin? list so that they can clianpe'Thoir mind. This, with tho experience already sained, should, ho considers, make tho next ns a whole, superior to-the last, alllu-iuqh the majority of the last party γ-ere individually unsurpassable pioneers. . "You would be surprised," Mr. Sedgwick adds, "at the keen anxietv of splendid lnd« to got out to New Zealand." Two u-allted .feu aUbu BAfli. ,wv to And Mi ul&itfa,

ami there an , , lie says, innumerable other 'wick .s;u : s':-"fho oj'ly ,',uos!iuii is whiiili Dominion or State, will receive them, »r, rather, get tlit-m. Five other Uovernnii'iiKs w.int tliem. anil wliiYliwor Uoionilnent oilers to look alter ami npnrpnticu them, to the -ami: they must.-be sent. The trouble caused to the Labour Department in placing and i-afcguardiiif; Hie first party has been more Hum repafd by tho protection afforded to labour by 'their being urevcn'etl by apprenticeship, and tho contingent banking of wages, from drifting into towns, nnd their being made skilled agriculturists'. The granting of assisted passages gives tho High Couiiui.v sioncr the right to reject any indirUluui whom lie may not consider sufficiently robust or tall."