THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Evening Star, Issue 2997, 26 September 1872, Page 4

THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

We continue Mr Ormond’s speech IMMIGRATION. I will now refer to one or two specific objections which have been raised by honorable members in regard to immigration. The honorable member for Timaru spoke of the masses of immigrants that were being brought into the country, and said that no intimations wore given as to where or how they were to be located. The honorable member for Auckland City West—l will take him at the same time—who is the only member on that side who has given us any indication of policy—and he did adduce a kind of outline of a policy—announced, amongst other things, that his party were prepared to settle people upon the land. He stated that they would prepare land for settlement, and that it was no use to bring out more immigrants until that w r as done. As the honorable member for Timaru has yet to reply, I think the House has a right to hear from the honorable member, aspiring as he does to the leadership of the Government of the country, what his views are upon the question of immigration, and especially is such an explanation due from the honorable gentleman, following, as it ought to do, upon that statement of policy which he made a year or two ago at Timaru. Sir, the country has a right to be informed by the honorable gentleman whether he still adheres to the course which he then proposed. I am not going to say what my own opinion is as to that course, but the declaration of the honorable gentleman may be summed up in this : that he proposed a system of confiscation of private property for purposes of settlement. He has among his devoted followers some gentlemen who are the owners of large tracts of country in the Province of Canter bury, which are peculiarly fitted for those purposes, and I suppose, by the earnest way in which they support the honorable gentleman, that they are ready to back him up in carrying out the only indication of a policy which he has given to the country during the last two or three years. The honorable member for Auckland City West—l am sorry he is not now in his place—who has stated to the House that the policy of his party is that of settling people on the land, is the very last honorable gentleman in this House who should speak in that way, for of all the Superintendents in the North Island, he is the one who has done the least in farthering immigration. Notwitstanding that his Province requires imraigi ants to as great if not a- greater extent than any other Province, there has been from the honorable gentleman no assistance whatever, and little or no indication of any desire on his part to settle people on the land, and yet the honorable gentleman is one of those who say it is a part of the policy they propose to adopt. As long ago as 1870, before the conduct of immigration was given to the Colony, the Government invited the Superintendents of all the Provinces to set aside land for settlement, and the reply of the honorable member for Auckland City West was to the effect that the Government had better use the confiscated lands, and that there was very little land in the Province of Auckland for purposes of settlement. That was the reply of the honorable gentleman who now comes forward and says that the leading policy of party with which he is acting is settlement on the lands. Sir, we have a right to say that we have done something towards the settlement of the people on the land, and that wo are doing so, although we have not gone to the extent of proposing to confiscate private property. The honorable member for Timaru said he would like to hear what the Government proposed to do with regard to settling immigrants on laud. During the short time in which immigrants have been arriving in the country, we have done something in that direction. We have founded at Masterton a settlement of about 100 people ; we have founded another settlement on the west coast of the Province of Wellington ; and there are arriving nearly 500 more, who arc to be located all through the Seventy-Mile Bush : their locations have been marked out, and there is work for them upon the public works in that locality. It has been the principle which has guided the Government in locating people on the land, that, in the North Island at any rate, they shall be settled in places where they can be assisted by receiving employment upon public* works ; and if the class of immigrants who are coming to the country is a class without capital, that is the only way of settling them upon the land in this country. In addition to that the Government have instructed the Agent-General to offer lands, upon deferred payments, on the West Coast, and at Tauranga, in the Province of Auckland. They have done that with a view of inducing the settlement in this country of small farmers, and getting them to join in the colonisation of the country. The lands that were proposed for occupation are the best in the Colony—some of the confiscated lands on the West Coast and at Tauranga, which were set apart for that purpose ; and the Agent-General was told that he might assist that class of colonists by bringing out their labourers under the favourable terms offered by the Government for immigration. I think, therefore, it will be allowed that the Government have done as much to induce people to settle on the land as the time we have had would allow. In Taranaki we hope and propose to carry out settlement on the land, but the great difficulty has been getting land. However, land-purchasing in that Province has been recommenced, and the Government have begun to acquire areas there. One block has lately been purchased, and last evening we received from Mr Parris, Native Commissioner, a report thi’t he has made an advance upon another block in that district. The Government will continue to make the necessary arrangements for securing settlement there, and so insure the advancement of that favoured portion of the Colony, The Government have, at the request of the Superintendent of Otago, the honorable member for Port Chalmers, asked the AgentGeneral to arrange for a special settlement at Stewart's Island, and although there aie not any public works in progress there on which the immigrants can be employed, there ia a special industry, that of fishing, which would assist settlers to establish themselves there ; and in conducting fisheries I think people from the Western Isles will prove to be very successful. With regard to general settlement in the Middle Island, the Government have not had any indication from the Provincial Governments that any action in that direction is desirable, and, so far as 1 have been able to gather—for I am not personally acquainted witli that part of the country the general feeling seems to be that at present there is a demand for almost more immigration than can be brought in, otherwise than in settling people upon the land. In

those Provinces people were - required to develop the natural industries of the Colony, and the Government considered it their duty to supply those wants in' the first instance. The land laws of those Prouinces are more of less in the way of any system of settlement on the land, and the Government have no intention of pushing matters further there than I have indicated. The honorable member for Tiinaru expressed* a fear which the Government does not entertain: ha spoke of the disadvantage of displacing our young men. The Government has no fear of anything of the kind. We know that the young men of the Colony have a very large field within which to exercise their energies, and any immigrants that are likely to be obtained, and which the Government are likely to bring in, will not displace the young men of this Colony; they will rather go in the way of developing further its advancement and progress. The Government have always in their own hands the regulation of the stream of immigration, and, so far as the reports I have laid upon the i able show, there is no great fear of undue stream of immigration. The difficulties which the AgentGeneral had at first to contend with were immense, and owing to the high price of labour in Great Britain, and the large advantages offered by the United States and Canada, in the shape of land, difficulties still continue in promoting emigration to this country. By the last mail the Government directed the Agent-General to, if necessary, make still more easy the means of bringing people to the Colony ; for they hold that it is absolutely necessary to the proper development of the system of public works that a continuous stream of immigration should be kept up, and the Government will sec that it is done. The honorable member for Avon urged an objection which has not been made by any other honorable member: he objected to people of other races being introduced ; but while the Government does not share in that opinion, they do notdesire to see the country unduly flooded by any particular race of foreigners. The small proportion of immigrants that can be expected to arrive from Germany, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, will be a very great advantage to the country. The method which the Government has of settling these immigrants on the lands, is to put them in a district where the agricultural population of Great Britain would be almost lost. In the Seventy-Mile Bush, and in the bush lands of Manawatu and Masterton, where settUtaent of foreign immigrants is being carried out by the Government, it would be wicked to ,put down the agricultural laborer from Great Britain upon the land; he would have no chance of success; his occupation would be contrary to bis habits of life ; it would only be a matter of disturbance to the Colony, and would cause the non-success of immigration. But, Sir, the people who have been brought out and settled there have shown, by their adaptation to their work, that it is their natural life, and by this judicious system portions of the country have been settled that otherwise would not have been occupied. We should look at the question in another point of view, and that is, these people bring with them new industries, and will establish them in the country ; and yet the honorable member talks of regretting that other nationalities are brought here. 1 would refer him to the advantage German settlers have been to South Australia : they are highly spoken of there and in the other Colonies, and particularly so in the United States. Let the honorable member ask honorable gentlemen who come from Auckland what they think of the German settlement north of Auckland, and how far it has been a success. I think they will tell him that these people have settled down and have shown their adaptation for the work of special settlement. The honorable gentleman was singular in his objection, and it is one only echoed from a portion of the Press of this Colony. The House has almost unanimously said it is glad to welcome to New Zealand people of all races, so long as they make good settlers. The honorable member for Manawatu stated that in Canterbury and Otago immigration had been upset by the Colonial Government; but I have really answered that in the explanation I made to the House. In 1870 the' Superintendents were asked to co-operate in inducing settlement, and they were told that if they would co-operate, hearty assistance would be given to them by the Covsrnment. I may here mention that I, as Superintendent of Hawke’s Bay, was the Superintendent who first came to the Government with a request for such assistance, and I can point to the fact that 500 immiganta are daily expected to arrive there’, as evidence that I did not make that application in vain. If other Superintendents in the North Island did not obtain similar assistance, the blame rests with them that the Government did not carry out with them what they did with me. Since the session of 1871, wdien the Colony took over the conduct of immigration, as much has been done as eould be done. The Government have arranged a system in which, although it may not have brought immigrants on so large a scale as might perhaps be wished, it is quite evident that as much as been done as our officers were able to do; and they have used, and will use, every means in their power to enlarge it. The honorable member for Rodney spoke of the Chinese circular, but his statement is hardly worth noticing. He said he believed that circular was written with the assent of my colleagues. He is right, it was written with the assent of my colleagues, but nothing more was intended by it than I have already stated the House. The honorable gentleman also followed up a cry that has already gone round the House, that the Government are not vising clue means to promote Irish, immigration. They have jumped to a foregone conclusion in thinking that the AgentGeneral is not using means to induce immigration from Ireland, but we have no positive information on that point ; we have asked for it, and probably before the House closes its sittings we shall know exactly where the 120 local agents who are paid head* money are working. 1 have no reason to believe that the Agent-General has neglected any part of the United Kingdom. By the last mail, indeed, we heard that Mr Farnall, who went from Auckland, has been sent to Ireland ; and it will be remembered that the number of Irishmen who have already arrived are second in proportion to the number from England itself, —before Scotland and any other country. This shows that the Agent-General has not neglected Irish immigration, (To he continued .)