IMMIGRATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3779, 5 April 1875, Page 2

IMMIGRATION.

To the Editor .

Sir,— A correspondent .is very severe on the deception that has been practised upon immi* grants to this Colony, and, I presume, to Otago especially. He sneers at the visionary who christened those islands the “ Britain of the South ” ; assures, ujs that for every two weeks* work, men are two or three idle ; and bewails the hardship that would convert the H—fingers of the tailor or the handy touch of the artisan, into the horny fist of the navvy; and adds, philosophically, “ Most men can do one thing well, but let them attempt mainy and they are bunglers at each.” All the above prove the unfitness of the gentleman for Colonial life. I think I have seen you before, “.dear boy” as Paul Bedford said. Did the agents at Horns, that he so much complains of, even so mnoh as hint that certain inconveniences had to he put up with, why, none would come—cry, stinking fish! Might as well expect tradesmen tokeep a walking gentlemen to caution customers against buying. It’s agairst human nature, my friend. Amongst the unsophisticated peonj* with whom you passed your earlier days/rio doubt the sausage maker would have been horrified at the hint that he used aught else for Us polonies but the proper ingredients, and the milkman shocked at the suggestion that the water supply was plentiful All was troth and honesty. Do ytm'think 'the first arrivals every, comfort and regular employ* msnt? Do you imagine the shsep-farmwsand

the men who opened ont the goldfields had railways and coaches at their beck and call ? Do you believe that Dunedin was intersected by well made streets, lighted with gas, supplied With theatres, visited by Clark, Goddard, and Christian, and a churth in every street in those days? No, my worthy friend. Men, aye, women and children had to tramp and camp; had to be content with any shelter and any employment; suffer toil, exposure, and want before they have been allowed to sit down and find you—even a paltry two weeks’ work occasionally. Perhaps you nevar heard that wages once reached 3s 6d per day, and you know not, may be, that meat was Is 6d per lb, and everything in proportion. That is the sort of thing others have had to put with. And you imagine that every preparation is to be made for you, aud that you are to be koo-tooed and waited upon, and almost asked to work and begged to feed. You may have been thus attended to at Home, which, considering all allow me to doubt, and I am sorely afraid if you came out expecting such attentions here, you will have to travel further. Yoit’re not the man for Galway.—l am, &c., _ Flax Boot. Dunedin, April 5.