IMMIGRATION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2980, 13 January 1881, Page 3

IMMIGRATION.

The prominent part taken by Mr Thomas Hughes in the promotion of the British co-operative farming settlement in Tennessee indicates a remarkable change in tbe views formerly expressed by him on the subject of immigration, and to which he gave energetic expression at a drawing-room meeting at Belgravia, where, at the request of Countess de Grey, Countess Waldegrave, Lady Mary Fielding, and other ladies, Mr John Plummer spoke of the advantages afforded by Australia and Canada to the willing artisan. It was at a time when great distress prevailed, and several of the wealthier members of the community expressed a desire to do something to help those who found themselves unemployed from no fault of their own. Mr Thomas Hughes, who was present, denounced the mention of emigration as a remedy. It was a great mistake, he argued, to encourage the deportation of British braiD and sinew, and he, for one, would resolutely oppose it. What was required wa9—not inducements for the British workman to leave England, but inducements for him to remain. He wholly disapproved of schemes for sending capital or labor away from English shores. But Mr Hughes has since learned to look at the question from another standpoint. But why should be have selected the United States rather than Australia or Canada as the scene of his great emigration experiment ? Can it be that he has learned to regard the British colonies with disfavour or has he been misled by misrepresentations ? The late Henry Kingsley, who had visted Australia, described it as the paradise of small farmers ; but his friend and fellow-novelist is apparently of a different opinion. Perhaps, if he were to find his way here, his views would undergo a fresh modification.