THE NORSEWOOD SETTLERS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3051, 6 April 1881, Page 2

THE NORSEWOOD SETTLERS.

[To the Editor of the Daily Telegraph.] Sib, — Noticing an article ia Monday's issue, taken from the Manawatu Times, and on which that paper has Buch good authority about the proposed Scandi- . □avian emigration to America, I can,. without any hesitation, give it a very strong denial—first, that there is no suchscheme on foot; and,second, that there never has been any as far as to be publicly known in Norsewood. Perhaps not half-a-dozen ever heard or ever thought about, such a project unless those few olive spriggs lately converted to Mormonism, who would thus reach their Faradise on Earth, the Holy Utah, for quarter price. Why was this scheme given rise to ? Did itemanate from the breast of that elucidator of Mormonism lately in the Manawatu district, or from any ill-disposed person, or from any selfish motives or maliciously. The above project publicly announced is calculated to seriously damage the settlers in Norsewood, first by lowering the value of their land, and secondly by making other people afraid of becoming owners ; because, where no people exist, land is of no value, and then, if any one wants to sell his land, he gets no price for it, because the prevailing thought will be it is not worth having, and then man and wife, after nine years toil and hardship, can pick up their little ones and go, and where will they go ? There is no work for them in the bush; there is no work anywhere else in this glorious country, :X so glowingly described by the immigration agents at home; they stand with flolded hands and wear tbe look ot despair. Then perhaps the thought comes, let us go where there is work, where we can get an existence ; but here they are, and here they must remain. There are none wloo wish to leave this once prosperous land if they could get any remunerative employment. Still there are many families almost wholly independent of outside labour, who get the needful off their land, and are happy, but they are few, and the needy are many. And sir, I thank you most sincerely for my countrymen at large for the manner in which you have several times brought attention to the state of affairs in Norsewood and other Scandnavian settlements through your paper when there has been a scarcity of work, and nearly starvation. Hoping I have not trespassed to far on your space. —I am, &c, V. Jensen. Napier, April 6, 1881.