The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 17, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2625, 17 July 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 17, 1871.

Never since Otago was settled has so little public interest been manifested in the proceedings of the Provincial Council as during the session, we hope, now drawing to a close. This has not arisen so much from indifference to public affairs as from a conviction, well or ill founded, that no influence from without can affect the course which Government supporters have determined slin.ll be followed. Whether designedly or not we

cannot, tell, but one subject, immigraousswhich much stress was laid has been allowed to pass 'almost without notice by the Provincial! Council. Some slight attention was, however, called to it on the motion Of. Mr. M‘Arthur, who, in three general resolutions, condemned the present system as unsatisfactory, and proposed another. The number of members present was small, the discussion without animation, and on a division ten voted against them and twelve in their favour ; so that it may be fairly considered their adoption may have been the result of accident, and that from their nature no action can be taken upon them. We do not say that the plan is not Avorthy of consideration. It is not new, but inasmuch as .it is proposed as a Ngav Zealand affair, and not one specially for the benefit of Otago, it is hardly likely to meet with any attention, as the Provincial Government has shown no disposition whatever to meet the General Government in introducing immigrants suitable to the requirements of the Province. Mr M'Arthur, virtually repeats the narroAV idea that tAvo classes only are wanted in the Colony < — farmers and the graziers. His second resolution runs thus:—

That it is desirable that a perambulating agency be established in the home country, to consist of one or more persons from New Zealand, thoroughly acquainted with the pastoral and agricultural pursuits of the colony, and qualified to give reliable information to intelligent and practical farmers in the home country who are from year to year looking out for new homes—many of them with an eye to New Zealand, but who, in the absenco of such information, arc finding their way annually to the United States of America and other countries in large numbers.

Nothing is more difficult than to convince a certain class of men that such immigration would be merely one* sided, and a wrong done to the very men who might be induced to come out through the representations of such agents. We do not undervalue farmers

or graziers. As food producers, they are an absolute necessity to our existence. They must follow their occupations in Otago or elsewhere within trading distance, if people employed in other ways are to live. But experience as well as common sense shews that in order that they may follow their occupation with profit to themselves, a large class of people must be engaged in other ways, in order that they may have a ready market for their produce. The General Government are quite aware of this. It was not only made a foundation of the plan of Colonial immigration proposed by Mr Vogel, but his Honor the Superintendent brought it before his Executive and the Province prior to his last election. It is not creditable to the intelligence of our provincial legislators that more careful consideration has not been given to the subject. In fact, it is discouraging to those who know on what the welfare of the Province and Colony depends, to find, for party purposes, those efforts thwarted which are calctilated to promote it. To develop the resources of the Province by settlement on the land alone, would be a slow and dreary process. Had Victoria been peopled by that process, Melbourne, instead of having nearly two hundred thousand inhabitants, would have been an unimportant tewn of some twenty or thirty thousand, and in all probability Victoria would have been still a Province of New South Wales. Otago is capable of being much more than a land of farms and sheep runs. It is a land of coals and iron ; it contains gold and other valuable metals easily accessible. Yet we - have committed the devising of means for the development of its enormous wealth to a few men whose training for business has been at the plough’s tail, and whose panacea for enriching one class is to impoverish another. The political history of the last two years records no effort for gathering together a population on the goldfields. The Chinese have found out their value, and arc reaping a harvest upon them ; but the Government stood by and looked on, notwithstanding a number of unemployed were daily before their eyes, And this session apparently will close with no provision for co-operation with the General Government in promoting that healthy immigration rendered necessary by the works that will be shortly in progress throughout the Colony. Last year the resistance to the General Government scheme was active; this session it has been nearly passive, with the exception of the refusal to benefit by the immigrants now settled at Palmerston, in Wellington. Mr M‘ Arthur's resolutions cannot be looked upon otherwise than as worthless. To act upon them by the Province appointing peripatetic lecturers or agents, whose business it would be to give information respecting New Zealand, would be an impertinent and expensive interference with the functions of the General Government. Excepting within very circumscribed limits, immigration is a Colonial, not a .Provincial affair.

In view of the easy means of communication between the different

ports of the Colony, even assisted immigrants cannot be bound to settle permanently in the Province that paid their passage. It might be very just and proper for the Government to say. We paid your passage, and are entitled to the profit of your labor. The fair reply would be, Then you are bound to provide me work at such wages as we can obtain elsewhere, and to set before us such prospects as have opened upon us in another place. In immigration, then, as in all other operations of Colonial interest, the course of pro ceeding should be in harmony with, not in opposition to, the General Government. If the course proposed by the central authority be wrong, the Provincial Council would be justified in making a boll and resolute stand against it, and would have our warm and earnest support. But if the Provincial Government is invited to cooperate with the Genei’al Government in plans that are for Colonial and Provincial benefit, and, neglecting or refusing to do so, proposes some other ill-matured plan, we cannot but condemn such conduct as factious, or, il that term be thought too strong, as idle and expensive triflimr.