PITY A POOR IMMIGRANT!

Evening Star, Issue 3516, 1 June 1874, Page 3

PITY A POOR IMMIGRANT!

To the Editor. Sir, —When I was induced to leave the Old Country and seek my fortune in this land of liberty, 1 had presented to my mind’s eye visions of a plot of some fifty acres of land, of which I should be the absolute owier, together with a nice little cottage, which should be my castle, and a couple of horses, a few cows, and sheep ad lib. These I expected to be the outcome of my labor for a few years. However, on arriving in Dunedin, a change came o’er the spirit of my dream. Having had in England a very praiseworthy horror of “publics,” X did not take kindly to your f* hotejs ,f —heaven save the mark ! So my troubles commenced with an endeavor to get a house in which to lay my weary head j and so far from seeing

any chance of obtaining the nice little cotta/e for myself, I found I had to pay ?;uite three times the rent I paid in England or a house not one-tbihi as good. I was ambitious enough soon after to attend some laud sales, and to my horror I found that instead of fifty-acre plots they put up plots of fifty links frontage, the auctioneer facetiously remarking “that you could cut one up into sections, and make quite a township out of it.” (Instead of the LI per acre I had fondly dreamed of the land fetched L2 per link. JNow, sir, this don’t suit me, and therefore I crave space in' your paper (the gnly one, bye-the-bye, which I can find at the Old Country price) to ask for information as to where the cheap land is to be found, and how to set about getting it. I noticed when I first arrived here that they were talking about having a handbook printed, setting forth the eligibility of New Zealand as a field for emigration. May I humbly suggest the desirability of a supplementary handbook, to give the fish you have safely landed some idea of how to get into the right grooves ? I read in your paper of recommendations to declare new Hundreds, but they convey no intelligence to me; and the proceedings of the Waste Laud Board, though no doubt intensely interesting and luminous to the inivtiated, are all the highest of Dutch to me. I may say I am not singular, either in my aspirations, or my ignorance. Every immigrant who lands on these shores (always excepting the Reformatory wenches) has been induced tocome hitherundertheimpression that to become independent is not only possible, but easy of accomplishment to an industrious, careful man. But for the life of us, we, the Dunedin contingent, cannot find out how to commence. There’s a great deal said about land on deferred payments. Is there any at present in the market? If so, where is it, and

how can we obtain some of it ? Or is it necessary to serve an apprenticeship at railway making or stonebreaking before you are qualified to become a purchaser ? True, we can get work at good wages ; but what with the prices of house rent, clothes, &c , it is quite possible to spend your money again with the greatest ease. Pray, then, enlighten us, or allow some other benefactor of his race to do so; or tell us where illumination is to be obtained. You will thereby confer an inestimable boon upon many a new comer who, like your humble servant, is T . An Aspirant. Danedm, May 30.