The Globe. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 40, 16 July 1874, Page 2

The Globe. THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1874.

It appears, whilst the farm labourers of England are trying to better themselves, (as the phrase is), by combining to demand higher wages from the farmers, and failing to obtain what they desire, by immigrating in thousands to many of the English colonies, and to the United States, that there are people in the latter country who would be content to get work in England if possible. It is stated, (it is said, on the authority of the British Consul at New York), than no loss than 40,000 skilled workmen are prepared to leave the great republic, and take up their residence in England. It must not be forgotten however, that

this statement has called forth a denial from the American authorities. Now wc hear from a paragraph in tue “Otago Guardian ” that there are rumors, that the demand for labor of a different description, has induced a man by the name of Wood, to offer to take over 20,000 farm labourers from the United States, and that the men will work in gangs for Ids a week, for the months from April toNovembcr,and for 10s a week for the remainder of the year. In addition to these payments, they Avould require to be fed, which would increase the rate of wages about 10s Gil per week per man, consequently the British farmer would be paying his men at the rate of 21s Gd per week for 7 mouths of the year, and 20s Gd per week for the remaining five months. Now we wonder who gets these paragraphs up. The paper from which the “Otago Guardian ” quotes is not given, but it does seem obvious to any one that it would he impossible for Mr Wood, whoever he may be, to make his crimping speculation pay. If the majority of the English laborers could earn wages at the rates we have described as being wanted by Mr Wood’s proteges, they would not dream of leaving their native country and home, and the numbers who would be persuaded by immigration agents to face the long sea voyage to Australia or New Zealand would be small indeed. Another statement is made in the paragraph we are alluding to viz., that “ one of these “ men will do as much work as three “ average English hands,” and we agree with the “ Guardian” when it remarks, “we don’t believe it.” It is perfectly true that the average American or Australasian farm hand is, as a rule, a handier and a quicker man than his English prototype, but that he will get through more work of the sort to which the Englishman is accustomed, and that on the latter’s own ground we cannot think, and the American would most certainly find the climate a sad change for the worse from that of Ohio, the spot from whence Mr Wood proposes to bring his contribution to the laboring population of England. We are, however, of opinion that the whole affair is the creation of some imaginative American correspondent, and that the immigration agents in England will still find plenty of farm hands willing to leave the old country and settle for the rest of their lives in the various provinces of New Zealand.