THE NEED FOR IMMIGRANTS.

Evening Star, Issue 3342, 5 November 1873, Page 3

THE NEED FOR IMMIGRANTS.

The last number (\f /fqgsaivf contains the report of a very interesting discussion on immigration, provoked by MrO’Korke having moved, when the House was in Committee of Supply, that the immigration vote for 1b7.Vl should ho L2f)0,000. In the course of his speech, Mr J. I'i. iirown, a Canterbury member, said the 12,000 people the (Jovernment proposed to introduce in the year could be employed ill the Colony within the next six months, and in support of his view (pioted a letter which ho had received from Canterbury. The writer of this Jotter stated that it was impossible to tell where the labor was to come from for harvesting and shearing : —‘‘The Hoad Hoards of the IToyuwC had been advertising for tenders for month after month, and could not even get a tender lor the works they required tq be done, because there was no labpr available. They had heard a great deal about High wages ; but if wages were high, and the employment of capital at the same time lucrative, then it was better for wages to bo high ; but if labor was at such a rate that no capital could be employed, they would, by keeping it so, in the end injure themselves

and all the prospects of the Colony.” Sir J, C. Wilson urged the obtaining of Staffordshire laborers, “2,000 of whom, he felt sure, would find employment in Canterbury during the next six months, as they could live in idleness during the remainder of the year.” .Summing up the debate, the Lyttelton Timet says Those who have given attention to the subject, who have compared facts and figures with regard to wages and the alienation of ('rown lands, will agree with us in saying that ('anterlmiy and Otago alone could profitably absorb from 1,200 to 1,500 immigrants per month.” -And apropos of the subject, we clip from thisweek’s Ccomicett Arpus .•--‘■Complaints are made from many quarters that it is getting very difficult to obtain the services of men for laboring work at any price.”