GOVERNMENT IMMIGRATION.

Dunstan Times, Issue 791, 15 June 1877, Page 3

GOVERNMENT IMMIGRATION.

The people in South Australia are having a somewhat similar experience to that obtained in this colony in the carrying out of their immigration scheme. The South Australian Advertiser says :—While we maintain that Government immigration is necessary, the method of conducting it is undoubtedly a proper subject for discussion, and a great deal of discussion is necessary before we shall arrive at a satisfactory settlement of the matter. The colony has just reason to complain of the character of many of the persons recently introduced at the public expense. The sweepings of the EastEnd, loafers, ne’er-do-wells, with a sprinkling of the criminal classes, have been pretty freely showered upon us. Gentlemen of no occupation have condescended to accept passages gratis from the South Australian Government, while ladies of more than doubtful reputation have transferred thenpeculiar talents to new fields on our side of the world. Some persons have not deserved the name of immigrants at all, for they have simply made use of our liberality to help themselves to a cheap trip to see their friends and relations in the other colonies. Blame undoubtedly rests somewhere for this most unsatisfactory state of things, but we shall not advance far in the way of correction by' passing indiscriminate censure on the Department andits subordinates throughout the British Isles. The action in Adelaide has been too spasmodic, and sometimes too meddlesome ; while the department in London has conducted its operations in an unsympathetic manner, and with a vast amount of red-tape. .'Orders from Adelaide have sometimes demanded the despatch of of such a number of people as must have tempted the officials in London to the employment of unscrupulous agents, and a too careless working of the entire machinery.