EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

Evening Star, Issue 4069, 11 March 1876, Page 1 (Supplement)

EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

In another column we (‘Aberdeen Daily Free Pleas’ of December 28) publish to-day a set of resolutions passed at a meeting of "the “ unemployed” in Dunedin ; and in doing 'so it may be advisable to explain that the copy of the resolutions sent ns came to hand a couple of' Weeks ago. They have since appeared in some of the southern papers, and been the occasion of comment more or less. The cause of our retaining them in hand till now was the fact that' we had some slight suspicions about their • origin, and these suspicions were rather confirmed than otherwise by the circumstance that the Dunedin papers .seemed to ignore the meeting ot the so-called unemployed people. Perhaps the best answer to the resolutions is the simple fact that during the last three years 42,300 free passages bad been arranged for by settlers who wished to bring out their own relatives. It surely speaks volumes for the country when those who know both sides of this question wish their friends to come and join them; and it is a complete refutation o! the resolutions, and of a letter from the Mr Grant who figures in connection therewith, which appeared last year in a contemporary. To us, it appears incredible that respectable colonists in New Zealand should ask their friends to break up their homes and cast their lot with them unless they were fully persuaded that those same friends would better their circumstances by so doing, Dunedin, we believe, has long been favored with a celebrated character in the Mr Grant just mentioned, 'who believes he has a special mission to redress the wrongs? of .the oppressed. This sample of the stump orator—who hails from Tomintoul—has for about sixteen years been the only living exponent of the unemployed of Dunedin; 90,000 persons- have landed at Otago during that time, and yet Grant’s unemployed don’t appear to have become more numerous even by the smallest addition. The Octagon—an open space in Princes street—is generally the place of his public meetings. There he is accustomed to address tradesmen going to or returning from dinner; and it is rather amusing, we understand, to contrast the pompous style of the orator with the diminutive form from which the oratory emanates. The workmen are always sure of a good hearty laugh at the expense of the orator, or at something he has said; and in either case Mr Grant is equally gratified. Hr Grant is a man of varied attainments and various occupations. He began life in Dunedin as a dominie, but neglected his school and took to preaching —first, , orthodoxy, then the rankest heterodoxy—which no one could be found sufficiently to appreciate. Next we believe ho became a laborer on tlio roads, and no doubt feejs that -he dignified the pick and wheelbarrow by using theuji in levelling the Octagon in Princes Statet, which Ims probably eiidenred the W»oVto him tfvet afbr. yeare .sfttft bo btratßo the edit#

and publisher of the ‘Delphic Oracle a sheet of foolscap (the latter Word would have been the better name). When the ‘ Oracle ’ went down he started the * Saturday Review/ no less, which also shared the fate of its prcdebessor. The style Of these publications was of the Dr Kenealy stamp—rich apd classical—and brought him promi neatly before the public, in addition to making him familiar with prison fare, actions for libel/ and bandaged noses. Mr Grant is a man of no influence or abi ity, and he is singularly- destitute of common sense. Had ms friends taught him some useful handicraft trade, he might have been a serviceable man, and been able to earn his bread in an honorable w iy. But instead, he was sent to Marischal College, Aberdeen, and the result has been the production of a semi-learned and useless mountebank. His life is, without exception, we are assured, the saddest picture in New Zealand of mis-uaed education and misspent effort. In no other town in New Zealand could he exhibit as he has been allowed to do in Dunedin, and it is simply to be accounted for from the fact that the elements of fun and frolic are so strongly developed in a number of unthinking people there, that they prefer one of Grant's meetings to the best available comedy. And it certainly has this advantage over the other, that thefarce is always real, so far as the chief actor is concerned. The Government of New Zealand, judging from the speech of the immigration Minister, is anxious to avoid anything like a • glut in the labor market, and those who are turning their eyes towards New Zealand will find the statements of responsible Ministers far more reliable than the extravagant utterances of any poor demagogue.