IMMIGRATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1699, 15 March 1913, Page 21

IMMIGRATION.

AND LAND SETTLEMENT!

[BT c. F. BOLTON.]

Great Britain at the present moment is more in danger of rapidly following the diro results of Ancient Romo than ever she was, owing to the existing internal trouble directly traceablo to the absolutely unjust land laws, and tho consequent cost of growing foodstuffs at a price to compete against other countries wliere the conditions are more favourable. It is a fact that owing to the railways and canals all being in the hands of combines, it some times costs more to carry, the small products of tho laud to the large centres of population than it does from Canada and elsewhere, and owing to the high. rents and unreasonable restrictions placed on tho lands tho tenant farmers are far from holding their own, and consequently they are unable to pay farm labourers !mbre than half a living wage, and as a result' tho land is largely unproductive, and held, especially in Scotland, for pleasure and sport. Tho rural population "will soon become a thing of tho past. "The land in the Highlands is credited by the owners with not being able to produce anything but deer and grouse, out the old people resident thero say that the soil has not changed since the days they well remember when valleys used to sustain. thousands of their people, from whose midst somo 4000 men who upheld the honour and prestige of Great Britain in the Crimean war, were bred and born, but these old people now say with tearful regret that birds and deer are more respected than human life. These are facts! tind since I was there the present Chancellor of the Exchequer has referred to them recently in the British Eouso of Commons, thus proving that my selfsought information and notes mado months before were based on bed-rock observations.

■•'The poverty in the agricultural districts 'throughout England, Ireland, Wales, and Sootland is appalling, and' the following example 'of wages fully accounts for it. I found able-bodied men working twelve hours per day of six days a week earning less than 10s. pei - freek, out of which they .had to supply every' commodity of life; and this between Cork and Killarney, in. the South of Ireland.' The average wage for the same class of men through South, North, and Mid-Wales, and all the counties in- England, from North to South, and in the North of Ireland and', the Isle,, of Mail may be fairly computed at 14s. The seventh day of the week in nearly all cases 'tho labourers are - thoughtfully aSKed only to attend to business'.'.about'' •four and a half hours, and this without extra pay. ! I ' was told that' the men were quite satisfied, and had a'small piece of land, allowing them to grow vegetables for their part food, without paying rent for same, and I innocently asked "When they did it."

In passing, most of the men.l.am referring to are married, aiid have an average family of four, and the high oost of living makes it absolutely impossiblo for them to tiave anything. It will be readily, seen that the pick of.'the able-bodied sons of tlite class have not the ,£lB necessary to enable them to come to this country; • When I told 1 them l about the conditions here, I can imagine nothing more, 'dramatic than the intense silence :that prevailed, .and it is a recollection ineffacable from my memory.

. I* wrote a short article . published in "Standard of Empire," June .21, 1912. It was headed "Maori' Landlords—Settlement Problem in,. New., Zealand," and the ?' following are . extracts . ' therefrom :—"After a tour :. through .. Canada' for the purpose' of studying.. 1 the. economic conditions 6f that country for farm hands, I am quite satisfied. that when New Zealand is better known by being 'boosted,' and its conditions explained to them, and cheaper means of getting them out are arranged, we.shall ;be jable to get first choice of good men. •Butj' few of the class' wo want ihayc jci'id; hs I .things are'.in .' this* country they. 'aire' l never 'likely to have it. Wo must have the men. On arriving here, I was much disappointed at finding our lon-' don office in such, an out-of-tho-way posi?. tion. When you get there you have got to look for it. I should suggest that an addition to the staff be made by appointing to the business department an up-to-date, keen man in closo touch with the conditions of New Zealand and able to diseuss'them witli inquirers. This would be the means of balancing tho good and big work now being done by our neighbours, the Australians, and balancing it to our advantage. •>:"Our.(and isj our mainstay, and. we, liayo.immenso areas still to open out. We havo .all tho essentials for a farming oountry—climate, soil, and rain—and no oountry in the world offers better opportunities for a small farmer where an excellent living can be made on a. comparatively sryall area of larid. _ Our Natives hold immense tracts' of country on which they do not pay rates, and they are now most anxious to sell at very low rates and to receive the interest such sales .through tho Publio Trustee, so no largo amount of principal would be wanted.' This has been : opposed by the late Native Minister for the last twenty' years. Wo are not asking for Maori landlords, and don't mean to have them. ,If the l land is not secured at once, subject, of course, to reservations, it : will be too' late, as our railways aro rapidly working north, and i<;e do not want to repeat what has taken place recently'on the Main Trunk Auckland-Wellington railway. .Maori- land worth <C 1 per acre .prior to' the, opening of the.line is now leased at high rents to Europeans, and.'/still oivned; by tho Maoris. • ■'■.•{j'V-o' . "Had the land been owncdvby Euro-, 'peans, and the rates remained 'unpaid for years; not only the unearned,increment, ,but tho land, would have , become/the property of the' State. . We''--, must!'' .'remember that th<> . Maoris are. ,' now ti9 well ! educated as ourselves,' ■ and are .treated' far . better than , we', are'; They have freo education and" frco doctors, and free medicines, they participate in our ; old age pensions, theyl.hare equal Parliamentary rotes,.-.arid'' receivo the'same ; high minimum wage that-we get when they work; but education has taught thom. that to farm; means hard and constant work, cud this >is not what they are looking for. The' experience of the late Judge Manning, who lmew. them best, is confirmed, by those of us who know them, that constant work does not suit them.v -• ■-. ' ' • .

"They work hard for a w«ek,-and., then tako a rest;, and as a week's work in oiir timber ' mills or' similar occupation ' will keep thorn for',two or three weeks, they insist on leaving jtheir jobs to look : after their own little plantations. Their , cry is: 'Make us full British subjects. This is'what we want, and it what the Treaty of Waitaugi said we should be.' . We must have the lands,' and have them lit once- cleared, grassed, and partially improved, and. sold under occupation, with right of purchase—this I have advocated for the last ten years—and when this is dene and settlers are at once found with small capital; our exports will .■ greatly increase, and we shall fill up the country with small freehold homssteads, whose ownei-3 will not want to strike, but to work long hours for their own profit and to the,' immemse advantage of the Dominion." , .

This was written prior to the change of our Government and recent'legislation,' and it will bo my pleasure to submit through the proper channel a scheme for' tho approval of the Prime Minister, which I firmly believe will be of the greatest value in at once attracting the- right class of oolonists to como out and assist in developing our country, and whoso lasting power and good must bo felt. Canada offers great inducement to immigrants, and as i\bo«t .£2 will tako them there, and on their arrival they aro given a warm welcpme and a present of 160 acres of land, tens of thousands are flocking there .from Great Britain and Europe. Tho land is excellent, and thousands of miles as level us a billiard table, and absolutely, ready for tho plough (no need of falling timber and bush), but the man who iands thero penniless and discovers that for live months in the year his land is snowed up, and that lie lis compelled by law to work his land four months each year and not leave it, ho is foreed_to atlem-pt to earn by working for outsiders I'or three months money sufficient to keep him for twelve, months

and to procure .primitive implements lo work with, is heavily handicapped in competing with motor machinery, which can plough, harrow, sow, and rehan'cuv in acres per day. He has only one as=et to depend on—work. A large number would te glad to get to us, and make use of our • Advances lo Settlers Act, and they talk of so doing,