IMMIGRATION TO OTAGO.

Evening Star, Issue 3474, 11 April 1874, Page 2

IMMIGRATION TO OTAGO.

The Masonic Hall was filled last evening by persons anxious to hear Mr Holloway’s “impressions of this Tro vince in reference to immigration.” The Mayor presided, and on the platform we noticed Messrs G. E. Barton, M.P.C.; J. L. Gillies, M.P.C., M. H.R. ; J. P. Armstrong, E. Prosser, C. R. Chapman, Ramsay, &c. Mr Holloway spoke as followsMr Chairman and Gentlemen, —I can assure you that it affords me great pleasure to meet you here tonight for the purpose of giving you the reasons which have prompted my visit to New Zealand, and to give the impressions made upon my mind while passing through your Province; and also to give you the opinions I have formed with reference to the Province of Otago as a suitable field for the settlement of our farm laborers. It may not be uninteresting to some pre sent here to-night to know a little of my early history and of my position in life. When a lecturer goes to a place to give a lecture, I think it tends to increase the confidence of the audience in what he has to say, if they know anything of his former history, and of his position in life. I was bora in the parish of Wot ton, in the county of Oxford, in England, of poor, but honest and industrious parents, who gave me what education I have, according to their means, which, I can assure you, were very scanty indeed. I never learnt half a page of grammar in my life, and I had to turn out very early in life into the fields to work and to -toil to eke out a scanty subsistence. Thus I have followed agricultural work until within the last two years. I was brought up as an agricultural laborer, and assisted in garden work occasionally. I followed these pursuits until within the last two years. During the last two years I have been connected with the National Laborers Union in England, an association which has for its object the improving of the position—not merely the raising of the wages —of farm laborers iu the United Kingdom. Their position in the past has been most deplorably. Bora in the midst of poverty and of distress, poverty’s arms have embraced them, poverty’s rags fa,aye covered them, poverty’s shrunken and shrivelled bosom has given them suck; poverty, like a fiend, has pursued them close through every Jane of life; and Standing over their grave—marring their manhood,' and destroying with its foul breath all thoughts fitted to make life sweet and dear and lovely.— (Applause.) I have been brought up amongst this class of people; I have mixed very freely with them. I have entered their houses, and, in many cases, I can assure you, they were acodes of misery and of privation. Their wages have been ever low; their food has been insufficient. They have had to send their sons out into the "field t,o foil whilst yet they were children. Thus, if has been impossible to give them education. It has beep, impossible to avoid the miseries of debt, pr to lay aside anything whatever for sickness or old age. The result of all this has been, that after years of toil, and having largely to appeal to the sympathy and charity of the public, they have in too many cases had to end their days_ in a Union Workbouse, and finally to rest in a paup.er’s grave.—(Hear.) Hence it is becoming absolutely necessary for some steps to be taken iu order to redress the grievances from which the farm laborers of our country ha ve suffered. With this object the farm laborers’ union—the National Agricultural Laborers’ Union—inEnglandwasformed; and lam happy to say that the dust of ages is being swept away from the minds of the agricultural laborers of our country. Intelligence is spreading; there is a restlessness among them, a knowledge of their wrongs, a sense of the great power which they possess, and a laudable ambition has taken possession of their souls to try to improve their position and the position of their children,—(Applause,) la the early part of the

year 1872 Joseph Arch, of world-wide renown, stood forth as the advocate of the working men of our country. We rallied around him. We did not leave him to fight the battle alone. We formed a strong combination ; we sent delegates out into nearly every county in England, and the result was that when I left England for iS 7 ew Zealand, the Agricultural Laborers’ Union alone numbered 100,000 men.—(Applause.) The Union has already in some measure accomplished the object for which it was started, that is, it has raised the wages of the farm laborers of our country. Previous to the starting of the Union the wages of the farm laborers in Somerset, Dorset, and Devonshire, was 7s and Ss per week. They had to pay rent, and lia,cl to provide for their wives and faS that pittance. The wages of farm laborers in Gloucester, Oxfordshire, Berks, and Buckinghamshire, waslOs per week; m Warwickshire 12s or 13s; in Lincolnshire about 16s ; and m Yorkshire about 18s. Since the establishment of the Association wages had gone up 2s or 3s per week. In Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, and Devonshire, the laborer now got 10s per week. In Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Berks, and Buckinghamshire, 12s ; in Warwickshire, Iss ; in Lincolnshire 18s; and in Yorkshire 19s to 20s.—(Bear.) Not only have wages gone but we have expended a great deal of money in migrating our men from one part of the country to another. That is, when wages are low we have paid their railway fare to the North, where they received nearly double w hat they were getting in their own counties. (Applause.) Eurther, we have assisted large numbers of men, with their wives and families, who have emigrated, not only to this country, hut to Queensland, Canada, and America. Now,|thia is the work which is going on in our country amongst the farm laborers. I would just wish to mention to you that Joseph Arch, our noble president, and many of our leaders, with several of the gentlemen of our Consulting Committee, did not at first approve of the system of emigration. Their argument was that no man should lie forced to leave his own home and go to a foreign land through stress of poverty; and I was of the same opinion myself. But, after using all the efforts which we possibly could, we found we were not able to lift the farm laborers into that position which we thought they were fairly entitled to. Hence, we turned our attention to e ij I^ra^0n ’ and we say: “ Much as we love old England, much as we love her institutions and her associations, yet if they want to keep down her laborers in serfdom, in destitution, and in slavery, we will turn our backs upon our country, and go far away to some more genial clime—to some hospitable country; and we will seek for a home where we will be treated as freemen in a free country —(applause)— where we will be properly remunerated for our labor, and be enabled to lay aside, through sobriety and through our hard earnings something that will support us in the hour of sickness and of old age.’ Now, with this object in view, we sent one of our delegates—Mr Richardson—to Queensland, to ascertain the resources of the country, and to see the advantages it opened up to us as a field for emigration; and Mr Arch went to Canada animated with the same noble sentiments and feelings, to try to benefit my fellow-men. I have myself left my home and my native county —1 have braved the‘dangers of the ocean(loud laughter)—l have travelled many thousand miles, in order that I might ascertain from personal observation the resources of New Zealand, and the advantages which it affords to our people at Home as a suitable field for immigration and for settlement. I may just say here, that no sooner did I arrive in New Zealand than I had an interview with his Honor the Superintendent, and was at once kindly welcomed to the Province, and was assured that the Government would do all in its power to give me every information with reference to the resources of the Colony. As we steamed down the river between Port Chalmers and Dunedin, I was surprised to see such a beautiful city spread out in all its loveliness before my eyes.—(Laughter, and A Voice : “You’ll do.’’) I must say I was surprised to see the growth of this beautiful City in so short a space of time. I was more surprised when I entered the town and passed along the streets to see the manly and respectable appearance of its inhabitants.—(Laughter, and applause.) There seemed to be a freedom about Colonial life that we know nothing of at Home —(Loud applause.) As I met the inhabitants of the town passing up the streets with their heads erect, I thought within myself : a man is a man here.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) There is no cringing here, but yet there is no rudeness ; but everything around seems to betoken happiness, comfort, and independence.—(Hear hear, and applause.) Such were the thoughts which passed through my mind, and such was the opinion I instantly formed of Dunedin, and I think you will agree with me that they were not very unfavorable.—(Hear, hear.) Since then I have travelled through your Province and I thought within myself as I saw tS sparseness of the population ; All this fine country wants is people-(hear, hear)—land laws properly administered—hear, hear)—manufactories in proper operation, trade and commerce encouraged, its mineral resources properly developed, and then, I thought, at no distant day, New Zealand would become the Britain of the South.—(Laughter and applause.) Everywhere I have gone through the Province there has been a scarcity of hands. I have everywhere been met with the statement: “ We are in want of hands here, Mr Holloway ; we have plenty of money in New Zealand, but we cannot get hands.” More especially is this the cose with regard to servant girls. I was told, “We are prepared to pay them almost any wages, but we cannot succeed in obtaining hands.” I have of course mot with all sorts of individuals and all sorts of advice and counsel since I have been in the Province, Solomon Says somewhere, “ la the multitude of counsellors there wanteth not wisdom and if that be true, I think I‘should be one of the wisest of men—(laughter)—for I have met with many individuals who have said to me: “ Mr Holloway, this is a very fine country ; this is the place for you to send your men. There is plenty of food and plenty of money here; everything but men.” Well, I have gone a little further on, and have fallen in with another class of people who say; “ Oh, Mr Holloway, don’t send your men here.” I fell in with a man the other day who drew a most woeful picture of this country. He said : “ Mr Holloway, don’t send your men out here ; they will be worse off here than at Home.” I have met some persons who have not scrupled to say that our farm laborers are better off in our own country with their paltry 10s or 14s P er _ week—but say 14s, for that is the average, taking all the counties together—than they would be out here with 8s per day. And you have to take into consideration that provisions at Home are very dear. Eor some months previous to my leaving, mutton was from 9d to lOd per lb, and coal LI 10s per ton, whilst out here you can get provisions much cheaper. Gentlemen, I do not wish to speak anything but facts to you; I do not deal in anything but facts —I leave the thing to speak for itself. It does not want any coloring. If you just look at the position of the farm laborers at Home, and compare it with the state <;f affairs here, the thing clearly speaks for itself, and does not want any coloring.—(Applause.) Another thing is, that I find many of you who are here to-night and in this town, and with whom I have occasionally come in contact, who are now holding influential and responsible positions, and who are really men who came to this Colony with scarcely any capital at all—(hear)—but who have, by their industry, sobriety, and perseverance made their way up to their present positions. I say, all honor to such men (Applause.) What is there to hinder others from attaining the same goal? What is there to prevent others by pursuing the necessary couduct-by Industry, sobriety, and perseverance -from arriving at the same altitude-from obtaining an independence by obtaining in the first place a piece of freehold laud and erecting a home upon it, and of farming the land to the best advantage ? What is there to hinder this from being done ? I should be nowhere, I know with the objections that are reigning in the minds of some people in the Province with reference to the land laws.-(Hear, hear.) I would much rather not enter upon this subject at all. My object m coming to New Zealand was not to deal at all with political questions. I came out here only with the object of ascertaining bv personal observation the resources of the country. And as the land question is so intimately connected with the object I have in view, and with the settlement of the people upon the land, I I think that perhaps it would not be altogether

out of place for me to throw out an idea or two bearing upon the subject—and especially as you know I have been interviewed by various kinds Oi people. Up at Roxburgh they got up an address to present to me, giving me a detailed account of their grievances, and also of the gloomy aspect presented by the present state of the land laws of the country against people coming from England to settle down here. Well, I dare say the people of Roxburgh have their grievances. I dare say the Government of New Zealand is not altogether perfect.—(Loud applause.) I dout know any Government myself that is perfect.—(Loud and continued applause.) Our own Government at home is very imperfect and you know we have been trying to get a perfect Government for hundreds of years? If we fail in that object in such a couutry as England, you cauuot conscientiously expect that a Government which has only been in existence about 25 or 26 years should he altogether perfect. I dare say the Government have committed some blunders in reference to the land laws, I don’t say but what they have; but you know that the Government in New Zealand have had a great deal to contend with, one way and another, and I have uo doubt myself but that they have learned a great deal by experience, and, as far as I have been able to ascertain, I believe it is the intention of the Government to do all they possibly can by way of settling the people on the land.—(A Voice : By giving the squatters 30,000 acres.) i have been very busy since I have been in the Jrrovmce; but, notwithstanding my business engagements, I found time to go through two or three of the land laws in operation in New Zealand. There is one of your land laws which relates to hundreds. I have road that cerj J OO j aro ma rked off, and are hundreds, consisting of from 10,000 to A), 000 acres, or more, as the case may bo. As far as I have been able to gather, any person possessing money has the privilege of going and spotting out upon that hundred as much land as he can purchase. He gets the land surveyed, and purchases it at the upset price of LI per acre, a d it becomes his own personal freehold property. I think, if I have read aright, that is the explanation of the Hundreds Act. I don t know what you think about the system, but I don t myself thoroughly fall in with it—• aad tell y° u w hy. In my travels through this country, and especially in Southland, 1 have occasionally come across a beautiful tract of land, and I said to my companion, as I passed along, “ What a fine piece of coum try this is for settlement and I bare invariably received the answer, “Oh, it is in tho hands of some great company or capitalist.”— (Hear, hear, and loud applause.) There is no chance whatever for a man to settle down there, and I thought within myself: If such a law is allowed to remain in force for a few years longer, all the land now available for agricultural purposes will pass into the hands of some great company or some great capitalist, and the industrial middle and lower classes will have to struggle on as best they can without any prospect whatever of being able to purchase a foot of freehold land.— (Hear, hear, and loud applause;) I think, myself, the true policy of every patriotic statesman should be—“ The land for the people, and the people for the land.” I think the Government, must have seen the evils of this system, because they have introduced another land law, which, to my mind, is infinitely superior to the one to which I have just referred, and I think if it was brought fully into operation—if it were justly and freely administered—(hear, hear)—it would, I think, be able to answer the purposes for which it was designed. You would succeed in obtaining people to settle down upon your land. All sorts of trades would be encouraged, manufactures would prosper, and a bright and glorious future would be secured for New Zealand. I refer now to the deferred paj ment system—(an-plause)—-and I find that the people everywhere i have been throughout the Province are in favor of this system. It is not so much with land laws themselves that the people find fault as with the administration of those land laws -(applause)—and I believe that if a Government would set aside sufficient blocks of land for those men amongst you who have been successful in life, who have been fortunate enough to save a few hundred pounds, so as to enable them to take up one of those 200 new aecricms. that is all that they require. They have nothing whatever to find fault with in the climate of New Zealand, nothing to find fault with m its resources; all they want is settlement upon the land. I should not have gone into this question at all had it not been for the fact that we do not want our brethren to work here all their days without any prospect of settling down upon the land.-(Hear, near.) And I can assure you that if Joseph Arch were out here, he would advance the same sentiments as I am expressing to-night. His object when he went to Canada was to obtain land for his people, as well as remunerative wages. I think I should fully accomplish my mission to this country if the Government of this Province or country will guarantee that if we bring a number of our industrious agricultural laborers out here, there will be a possibility of their purchasing a few acres of freehold land and of settling down upon their own farms.—(Applause.) I think myself that if the Government adopted this course—if they provided for settlement, and I believe they are doing so now—(no, no)-as far as I have been able to ascertain, tho Government are doing it They have just been setting aside a block of land in the Tuapeka district—(a 1 understand that in other parts of the district they are at the present time surveymg land for this purpose; and I have no doubt whatever that the Government will attend to the wants of the people. But wbat ! would wish to convey to the minds of the people m office is not to confine themselves to any special quantity of laud. Ihey have now made a law not to set aside more than 30,000 acres per year. I sav they should not confine themselves to' any quantity, but should devote fis much lahd'td the cause of settlement as there' are men to takeit up.—(Appiause.) I think myself that if the Government adopted this policy there would not be any need to send immigration agents home to England.—(Hear, hear, and applause.) I behove myself that every one of you who are to-day in prosperous circumstances if you saw any possibility of being able to purchase a piece of land to settle upon, would become immigration agents. You would send 8 jewing accounts to your friends to induce them to come out- (A Voice : Of course we would!)—to this fine heithy where there is land for them to settle down Tl^ kB TT yOU would save the great expense of sending Home immigration agents. Well gentlemen I do not know that I shall detain you much longer. I will just say that I have formed a very favorable opinion ef your country. I would say, to the honor of all whom I have met, that I have met with tho best behaviour I have been most kindly treated t-fof- aU i . wix °m I have come in contact. My object in coming out here has m^fnll 0 tCy better tbe Position of my fellow-countrymen, and you mav rest assured that I shall take Home a truthful reu 6 the c , onfideuc e of a large body of KhltT H ° me 5 Can place full confidence » f nd \ s *y t° you to-night, and I 6ay *t with thp knowledge before me that it will roach the ears of those in office, that if the Government will only attend to what I have been throwing out now, if they will guarantee to you o are settled heie a possibility of purchasing a section of land, and if they will guarantee to me the possibility of our people smmf Inn prospe ? t , of being able to settle upon some 200 acres of land, I shall have no hesitation whatever m trying to persuade as many as can possibly do so to come out to New Zealand, inapplause.) I have now done with the and question, but there are a few suggestions I should like to throw out with regard to immigrati.on, a B , it is at present carried on. When I was interviewed, immediately on my arrival in 1 «Mnk I told th. & Snumt™*.??' B ? ecUl I Win coming out, was to ascertain for ravseif the war Now hj are . treated board ship[ * -K the . immigration scheme as at wv imSS°v yiQthe ex tieme,andis f Vi^ 0U know aB weU as I do that during the !ast three months there is not a ship that has come into your port but what has bad a v>noL a . mOU 4 Ut , of , sickness and mortality on liter-ill m ? eed the bed of the ocean has been Sii 7 8t u re Y ed Wlth *be bodies of beloved children who have succumbed to disease durr—e v °yage. Much has been said and much as been written upon this very important subjeetj and j think myself that very great

provements might be made in the present system, both with regard to securing the right class of men for colonists, and also for lessening the chances of disease on shipboard. (1.) I would •urge a more careful selection of immigrants at Home. Agents should be instructed not so much to look after quantity as quality. Better far to bring out half the number of good, healthy, sober, and industrious persons, than double the quantity of unhealthy, unsuitable persons. (2.) I think the medial inspection ought to be a much more painstaking and carefully conducted affair. I think that previous to receiving their contract tickets, emigrants ought to be for fourteen days under medical inspection in their homes. This might readily e done bv submitting all desirous of emigrating to inspection by a doctor in their own neighborhood. Should he pass tnem, let them remain under his eye for fourteen days ; if at the end of that time no sickness has shown itself, let them secure tbeir tickets, and proceed directly to the port of embarkation. If this .plan was carried oat, 1 teel persuaded, it would obviate much disease on ship board. 3. Then, if the emigrants proceed to Plymouth for embarkation, the shipping authorities should see that the place is not overcrowded, as it was in our case, and certainly ought never to be without the means of moving the sick from among the healthy. I think it is a great mistake to allow emigrants to remain ten days m barracks before proceeding to sea. 1 think the medical inspections on .hipboard might not be so hurried over. Some excellent advice is given upon this subject in a series of letters now appearing in the ‘Evening Star,’ a correspondent who signs himself Observer, and who evidently has had good experience of the way in which the emigrants' are passed on shipboard. 6. In the interests of morality and_ decency, I feel compelled to direct your special and careful attention to the condition of married couples and their families on board ship, with a view to ensuring their greater privacy and comfort, at night more especially. _ The arrangements of berths, as at present existing, appear to me to be faulty in the extreme, both on account of the limited space appropriated to each family, which necessitates their herding together like brute beasts and also from the total absence of any description of screen or boards, to hide from the vulgar gaze the most necessary occupations of a sleeping apartment. As a remedy for the first, I P™P OSe that in no case should more than two cnudfeii (under 12) sleep together in the same » t A for we must not blind ourselves to the fact that young children require at least as much air as any adult, while the freer the respiration, and the purer the air breathed, is the chance of disease lessened. Remedy for the: second evil • I would recommend that emigrant ships should be fitted up with Allen's patent berth accommodation, the chief characteristic v 18 each family has a separate berth or room, and thus the utmost privacy is secured. 6. I would recommend that the dietary arrangement for children should be en tirely changed. I think Dr Davison’s scale, which he has recommended, would suit admir ®hiy. 7. J would recommend that, en every emi-: grant ship, it should be laid down as a rule that one of the captains of the messes, in rotation be present every morning when the storekeeper' Issues out the rations, to see that both adults and children get their proper weight and.mea- i sure of the rations specified upon their contract tickets. Much grumbling and unpleasantness would thereby be avoided. I think that if this last suggestion was more largely acted upon, I do not think there would have been so much complaint on board the vessel I came out in. Inere was constant complaint on board with re gard to the rations and the manner in which they were served out; and also with regard to the shortness of water. Indeed, it reached such •' PWQh that the immigrants were obliged to choose a man from amongst themselves to go down every morning to see that he got even proper weight and measure. And I can assure you that the complaints made by the inuni- ; grants on reaching this country were fully j us . tilled ; and I think that the trial or investigation which was made in reference to that affair ‘ instead of taking place at Wellington, where Were were no witnesses, should have taken PlSce here, where many of the persons who had reason to complain resided.—(Applause.) .Lastly, I would recommend, under present cirfcuinstances, that large families be not encour-*®nvj-ome f°r the simple reason that it wllbe difficult to obtain employment with suitable house accommodation. Gentlemen, I thank you most heartily for the cordial reception, and the patient hearing you have given me, lam sure I feel ve-y grateful to you; and I think my observations to-night may not be altogether unavailing, I have endeavored to give an assembly of people in Dunedin what I have been asked to do in several places. While passing through the Province, I did not see my way to give addresses at any of the towns ; but I promised that if I thought it was desirable I would, deliver an address at Dunedin on my return. I have so far fulfilled my duty, and thank you for the patient manner in which you have listened to me.

_A number of questions were put to Mr Holloway, and these, together with his replies we are obliged to hold over. * J iE S ONG moved and Mr Barnes seconded; That this meeting thank Mr Holloway for his address, and desires also to express its opinion that the thanks of the working men of this Province, who are desirous of securing ® hare of tbe unsold agricultural land of the Province for 6ona Re settlement, are due to the men of Roxburgh for having caused so much attention to be directed to the consideration of our land laws and their administration by the statement relative thereto presented bv them to Mr Holloway. ” 3 After some remarks from Mr Grant, and considerable disorder, Chapman moved an amendment to the effect that the meeting should accord a vote hi thanks to Mr Holloway for his address, and his favorable impression of the Golony, but it ,and n <L n ried! COnder ‘ motion was then P ut