The Evening Star. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2071, 24 December 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1869.

Among the subjects to which his Honor the Superintendent, in his opening address to the Council, "directed especial attention was that of immigration. He touched upon the question with a nervous delicacystill sufficient was advanced to show that the Government recognised the importance of the subject. The proposal to appoint immigration agents to go home to induce emigrants to come to Otago, was a recognition of the principle that in a new country, one of the main, if not the main object of a government should be to secure a steady and certain increase of population, With a class, all movements in favor of immigration are viewed as an attempt on the pait of capitalists to oppress the working man. Thus when any immigration scheme is advanced, the “ stump ” is called iuto requisition, and the oily tongued “ working man’s friend ” finds a willing and applauding audience. The bricklayer, the carpenter, the smith, and other mechanics, although in receipt of weekly salaries sufficiently large to enable them, if they are thrifty and industrious, to acquire in a few years a moderate competency, are loud in their opposition to any measure calculated to increase the population. To them immigration means nothing more than increased competition, a lowering of the price of labor, and the retrogression of the country. Such men forget the fact that population is essential to progress—that even an apparent overflow of people works out an ultimate good to all. It spurs the industrious and enterprising to renewed activity ; and affords facilities for the opening up of new industries, which'for want of labor have been previously neglected. There is perhaps no country in the world in greater need of population than Otago is at the present time. It may be said we have had a long career of prosperity, which is now on the decline. Why is it on the decline? There can be but one answer. The Colonists in considering the question of Immigration, are wedded to one class of labor. Sheep-farming, agricultural pursuits, gold mining, and trading are looked upon as the Alpha and Omega of prosperity. We hear complaints that the Province is drifting backwards, that the goldfields are worked out, that agriculture will not pay, that trade is diminishing and the Province retrograding. What does all this come to ? We have not the people to develop the resources of the country. There are numerous fields for industry yet unopened. The cultivation and preparation of flax of itself, if energetically carried out, would supply profitable employment to thousands of workers. The known extensive coal-fields are lying waste for want of hands to work them, and the auriferous countiy is almost unlimited, but it requires a large and persevering population to disembowel the hidden wealth. The Province possesses all the natural elements necessary to sustain in peace and contentment a large and prosperous people, and the only drawback to progress is the want of population. In early colonisation, pastoral and agricultural pursuits, and mining operations were naturally the favored and most essential interests of the Province. That time is passing away, and we should now essay to become a manafacturing as well as a producing people. In order to accomplish this, we must have an annual and extensive increase of workers, of all classes and descriptions. The question of immigration, therefore, is second to none; but we are not prepared to grant that the proposal to send agents Horae is calculated to secure the desired end. Before such a step is taken, the whole immigration system should be fairly considered, and wisely recast. The present system has proved bad and unworkable. From the experience of the last ten years, it must be patent to all who have given the subject attention, that assisted immigration has proved a failure. It tends to destroy the independent energy of the recipient of the Government bounty, and to induce many to become repudiators of a public obligation. What can be more humiliating than to find our law reports disfigured with cases of the Superintendent v. Mac Caber, Jones, or Robinson, for the balance of money advanced to bring the defendants to the country. The necessity for such proceedings is degrading to the Government and discreditable to the community. If we are to have Government immigrants, let them arrive free and unshackled—either pay their own passage or have it paid for them by the Government. The existing system tends to create a number of Government debtors, which morally and politically are a bad class. In the second place is it not degrading to witness, as we have witnessed, the Provincial Solicitor prosecuting an industrious man for passage money of his wife contracted long before he ever

saw her ? No doubt if a man wants a wife and the Government is kind enough to provide one for him, honor should lead him to recoup the Government. This code of honor, however, does not appear to be adopted by a large number of the assisted immigrants. The importance of this subject is beyond estimate, and we think the Council before it was dissolved should have appointed a Select Immigration Committee, with power to act during the recess. They should have been instructed to investigate the working of the present system, and to frame such alterations as the evidence adduced might suggest. We want people to form the new settlements on the West Coast, to develope our coal mines, and other industries. Why should not free grants of land be made the inducement for the class of immigrants required to cast their lot among us. We want more a perfect immigration organisation than anything else. Get this and the country will be far more benefited than it would be by the appointment of a phalanx of immigration agents.