The Globe. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 42, 18 July 1874, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1874.

It will be seen from a paragraph in this morning’s “ Press ” that the Government do not seem to take much trouble about immigrants after they have landed on these shores. We have no reason to doubt the facts that are stated in the report we allude to, and the affair is most discreditable to the Government. These poor Germans, many of whom could not speak a word of English, were to be sent to the depot at Oxford, and that being the case, some one ought to have been sent in charge of them to their destination. Strangers and foreigners, they should not have been allowed to hang about the platform of a station, or shelter themselves as best they could in a verandah, until the station-master took pity on their forlorn condition, and gave them a room and a fire. They should not even have been started from Christchurch, until arrangements had been made for their passage right through to Oxford, and the department might have ascertained the fact, that conveyances were not forthcoming at Eangiora, at a verytrifling cost. With the bitter cold nights we are now experiencing, it must have been excessively trying to women and children, to pass the night huddled up on the floor of a gatekeeper’s cottage; and it appears in fact, that one of the children, who were compelled to put up with this accommodation, has since died. The report adds the qualifying rider, “ that the child may have been sickly before;” so it may, but then, we have at present, no evidence that such was the case, though we shall in all probability be better informed shortly, as of course the matter will not rest as it stands at present, and we presume that some official will have to bear the blame, that the public will undoubtedly lay on the members of the Department. That poor unfortunate strangers should be packed off from town to a depot, the very means of communication with which are imperfect; that a large party should be compelled to subsist for twenty-four hours on thirteen loaves of bread, with some coffee and sugar ; that they should after that, whilst still on the road, be dependent on private charity for meat and drink; and that, finally, death should ensue among among the party travelling, is intolerable, and humanity, to say nothing of expediency, will insist on an enquiry into who is to blame. The present Ministry, are able and humane gentlemen enough, and they will surely not let such a gross case of mismanagement (to call it by no stronger term) pass over, without affording the public some clue as to by whom this blundering was committed, and as to where the blame of the occurrence must be laid. If we are going on importing immigrants at the present rate, it will come to pass that the new comers will be comparing notes with this unfortunate body of Germans, and the consequence will be, that we shall have the pleasure of reading their story in the English newspapers, with comments on the same, that will not be flattering to the Provincial Government of Canterbury, New Zealand,