IMMIGRATION STATEMENT.

Evening Star, Issue 3579, 12 August 1874, Page 2

IMMIGRATION STATEMENT.

The Premier, in making the immigration statement, said the number of souls introduced between June, 1873. and 1874, was 17,513. Of these, 7 503 were brought out un4er thg Immigration and PnblicWorks Act. There are row on the watgr |4,§30, nearly as many as had arriyed during the past year. He referred the House to the immigration correspondence laid npon the table, which showed the history and position of immigration. He could not deny to the House that immigratiou had not been carried on to the satisfaction of, the Government, but notwithstanding |ffist A gentrGeneral aR( j the Government wepe not kt one .qn that head, still ho worked most zealously 'according tp his pwn ideas as to selection. H g considered that, op the whole, the immigrants were of a class snph as thp Colony should be satisfied with. It was impossible that any care coaid always succeed in preventing a few undesirable characters being introduced, so long as the present great impulse to emigration to New Zealand was in existence. He would, however, admit that room for improvement existed in the mode of selection. More pains should be bestowed upon the system of nominated immigration. Another cause of dissatisfaction, to the Government with the Agent-General wa 3 the unsatisiactory of the arpaiigpmpnfcg at tpe depots, and the shipping .of While recognising the aeal of the AgentGeneral the Government must insist that their views are carried out, though no doubt allowances must be made for a difference between instructions given here and the way they are carried out 16,000 miles away. But all these questions would probably be discussed when the estimates regarding immigration jyerp brought cjovvp. Having stated the causes of the 'dissatisfaction with the Ageat-Geperal, hp could bpar testimony to the great amount of work he got through ; to the many difficulties be had to contend’ with in organising his department, now a very large one, and in the Inefficiency of many of his assistants; and to the able assistance he rendered in financial arrangements. He was not able now to say to what extent the Government were prepared to introduce immigrants into the country’, which must to a great extent be regulated by the power of absorption shown bv the Colony, ihat had heretofore been verv great, and remarkably successful, notwithstanding that a large proportion of them ar rived in the Colony at an unfavorable season ot the yeaj. He had to accord the best praise to the Superintendents of Otago and Canterbury—but to the latter especiallytor their valuable co-operatioa aud aasiatregard to immigration, the power of the Colony to absorb the immigrants must

depend more upon the absorbing power of the interior parts of the Colony than upon that of seaport towas. The hon. gentleman described the estimates, of which the followmß ar « the prinoidle items. The Agent-Gene-ral a department vote, owing to the great expansion, increased clerical labor, and the establishment of branch agencies in the Umted Kmgdom. was increased largely, being L 12.005. Expenditure for the introlocation of immigrants, including the liabilities i f immigrants on the way, increased from L 260.000 to L 275.000 Appropriations for different Provinces, including various expenses incidental to the immigration, and inclusive of advances for works in connection with the location of se>tiers including advances for cottages : Auckland' L 17.858 ; Taranaki, I 20,125 ; Hawke’s Bav L 12,136 ; Wellington, L 66.385 ; Nelson LI 1,050 ; Marlborough, L 1",535 ; Westland’ L 14.170; Canterbury, L 9.317 I2s ; Otago’, L 17.395; which, with various ether expenses in connection with depdts, steam launches, Sta., make a total vote of L 481,061. la conclusion, the Premier said the estimates had been framed with a view to economy in each Province in the Colony. Bills passed: State Forests Bill, Naval Training Schools Bill, Christchurch Drainage Debentures Bill, Oamaru Harbor Beard Land Bill.