The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3475, 13 April 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, APRIL 13, 1874.

It is not to be expected that capitalists will invest in undertakings without some fair prospect of a return for their outlay, and to this cause must be attributed the scarcity of house accommodation suitable to the class of immigrants now coming into the country. Notwithstanding ths rapid extension bf Dunedin, and the numbers of buildings erected during the last three years, they are insufficient to meet the

demand. The truth has made itself plain to all but a few sluggish-brained croakers, that a stream of immigrants into a newly-settled country tends to sustain wages, through creating employment, and to render all industries, agricultural and manufacturing, profitable. The news from Great Britain of a lock-out of agricultural laborers in the Eastern countries will tend to foster a desire to emigrate to countries where labor is in better demand and better remunerated; and we do not doubt that numbers will be found anxious to settle in New Zealand. But it is evident w.e are not prepared to offer homes for families, and we should think it is chiefly those who will feel

the pressure of the lock out. The occasional glimpses we have of the accommodation provided for laborers on farms, and which are revealed to us through proceedings in our minor courts, prove that the farmers of this Province do not study their own interests by seeking to locate settlers in the neighborhood of their estates. The advertisements in the newspapers still ask for “ married couples without incumbrance a phrase which everyone knows means a man servant and a woman servant who can live in the house, because there is no cottage on the estate where a family can reside ; and even in the vicinity of extensively cultivated tracts of country, the little hamlets selected for dwellings by farm laborers as likely places to secure constant employment present curious phases of building ingenuity. We have one in our mind at this moment: a pretty site on the borders of a lake on which ducks and geese were disporting, around which fowls of choice breeds were picking their food, where there were rude shelter sheds for horses, and other signs of well-to-do

people living in the settlement; but not a decent cottage was there. Some of the families dwell in little shanties patched up of packing cases, and covered with their metal linings. They are superior to what we hear of Maori or other barbarous dwellings, through having glazed windows, doors turning on hinges, chimneys of wood, tin, sheet iron, or clay, and fireplaces for domestic purposes. We cannot say what the internal arrangements are, but we know they must be cramped for room, if the decencies of life are to be observed. These apologies for habitations that we have described are the best of the class. Others are made of canvas that bear the marks of considerable wear and tear. They too have their windows and doors and chimneys. There is not much attention to fashion in dress in such hamlets. The ladies do most of their culinary and washing business outside the dwelling ; the children roll about in the dust and mud, and vie with the dogs and goats—which, by the way, are not numerous—in their gambols. Mothers, in despair, cease to try to keep hands, faces, or cloches clean; and as there is nobody but -neighbors, situated alike, to admire neatness of dress in the family, the saving of drapers’ and tailors’ bills must be enormous. There is no school within seven or eight miles; no religious service, excepting twice a month at the farm, and that is five or six miles distant. Separated so far from immediate social influences calculated to lead to the amenities of civilised life, it is surprising how smoothly time seems to pass with these settlers. They appear live wonderfully harmoniously together. No doubt there will be occasional quarrels ; for there must, in the nature of the case, be encroachment, and, as a consequence, resistance and, perhaps, retaliation. Probably some reasons for

*J the smoothness of their daily walk are good wages, constant work, and no public-house—which seems to more than counterbalance the no-church nor school. This rude independence, too, has its charms for those who have been subjected to the grinding tasks for small submitted to at Home. But it is n,ot should be sought to be fostered fyy tljo Government or society. It has not even the poetic charm of a cottage, a pig in a stye, and cows feeding on the natural grasses. The accounts we have of crowding on large estates in Great Britain lead us to think that even these rude hamlets may be preferable to such uncomfortable quarters. But the object should be to raise the condition of those who come among us, socially and .morally. This is as difficult under our present system of land tenure as the making of roads, railways, or any other public work calculated to improve the property of landowners. Society has parted with control over the land, and landed proprietors, like every other class of capitalists, desire to have labor as abundant

as possible without laying out money to secure it. They are willing to contribute to fr3e immigration, because their share of the necessary taxation is only fractional, while their gains are multiplied. But they claim their right to use their own estates as they choose, and shortsightedly in this, as in. many other cases, they prefer depending upon casual labor, to spending a few pounds to secure a supply they can depend upon by inducing permanent settlement of families near them. The result is felt in the increased and increasing difficulty of cultivating their estates. We see no remedy for this in regard to land already sold. As to that not yet occupied, conditions of building might be attached, but we do not see how they could be enforced if ! the land is to be alienated from the Crown. Of this we may be certain,; that so long as the task of devising laws is in the hands of those who are deeply interested in the matter, they 1 will not consent to tax themselves. The problem how to settle people on. the land with advantage to their temporal moral and social circumstances has yet to be solved.