SOUTHLAND AND IMMIGRA TION.

Evening Star, Issue 3671, 27 November 1874, Page 3

SOUTHLAND AND IMMIGRA TION.

Mr Wi lis, in acknowledging the receipt of a communication enclosing a resolution adopted at a recent meeting of the Southland Railway and Immigration Committee, says ; —“ In reply, I am to inform you that the Provincial Government has repeatedly expressed its desire tnat a proportion of immigrant ships for this Province should discharge at Bluff Harbor, As, however, the selection and shipment of emigrants is entirely in the hands of the Colonial Government, the Provincial Government has no potential voice in the matter. The Previncial Government has, at the request of the General Government, undertaken the charge of rec iving and locating the immigrants' after their arrival, and in so doing has endeavqred to send a fair proportion to your district—not of the “ seconds,” as has been insinuated, hut in most cases direct from the immigrant ship. I am further desired to express the regret of the Provincial Government that there seems to be a disposition to attribute to it partiality in the distribution of immigrants. Of 7,175, the total number of immigrants landed in the Province from Ist April to 31st October, 14*74, there have been landed at Invercargill and Riverton 1,435, being more than a fair proportion of the total number as compared with the number of the population of that portion of the Province of Otago.”