GENERAL GOVERNMENT IMMIGRANTS.

Evening Star, Issue 3175, 24 April 1873, Page 3

GENERAL GOVERNMENT IMMIGRANTS.

Ta the Editor.

SIR, —I was glad to see in your leader of last night a complete exposure of tho unstatesmanlike and unpatriotic views of your morning contemporary on the subject of immigration. Your arguments Avere quite irrefragable. No doubt your desire to be thoroughly logical kept you from taking even the broadest view of the subject. 1 would go further ; and AA'hen your readers bear my reason for so doing, 1 brlieve they Avill endorse my statement. Our position is simply this. (For the sake of being understood, let us stick to our own Province for the illustration, though the Colony could as easily be substituted.) Wc have millions of acres of unsold land. Being unsold, it is as a rule only made use of for pasturage. That is far better than its lying altogether idle, but it is not so desirable as its being sold and settled upon. It would be much better for the Colony generally Avere we able to induce a better class of settlers to come out from Horae, even though we had to pay all their passage money ; because every bushel of wheat they Avould produce Avould enrich the country to that extent, and every ton of coal dug out of the land would be a benefit to the Colony. The taxes on the goods they would consume in one year would amount to a very considerable sum ; and in a few years avould completely wipe out the expense of their passage. In addition, the Colony would have the benefit of their producing powers. The land belonging to the Province I look upon just in the Tight of the capital of a bank. Unless avc make the best use of it, we can’t expect to prosper. A thousand times better it would be for ua Avere wc even to allow bona fide settlers to ha\ r e the land for nothing. The Colony would not only be handsomely paid by the fruits of their industry, but the townspeople and mechanics generally Avould reap the benefit of increased expenditure iu many ways.—l am, &c., 1 Alpha. Dunedin, April 23,