The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 67, 18 August 1874, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1874.

The Ministerial Statement on Immigration is published in the morning’s papers, and is worih attentive perusal by every one. We have before alluded to it, in mentioning the remarks made by Mr Yogel during its delivery, upon the conduct of the Agent-General in England, Ur Featherston. There are other parts of the speech which are worthy of attention : but before alluding to them it will be seen that Mr Vogel’s Government, according to his own statement, sent home peremptory instructions to Ur Featherston to introduce a system of free immigration, in consequence of the number of immigrants arriving in the colony not being adequate to its wants, Ur Featherston, therefore, had no choice in the matter, and was compelled to find shiploads of immigrants, of some sort or other, to satisfy the Government who had dispatched him homo. After giving an account of the difficulties and disagreements with the Agent - General’s office, Mr Yogel turned to the case of the immigrants After their arrival here, and -he

stated as his own opinion that the present system of introducing immigrants should he modified to some extent, or at any rate that the power should be left in the hands of the Government to regulate it as they found necessary. Mr Vogel then went on to bear witness to the assistance he had received from the Superintendents of the two provinces that had naturally absorbed most of the new comers, and he more particularly referred to his indebtedness to the Superintendent of this province. Mr Vogel repudiated the idea of having borrowed his system of free immigration from Canterbury, and stated what we think most people will allow, that a majority of people here were in favor of limiting the system to immigrants nominated in the colony. The idea of the establishment of country depots was credited to the right person, and the Premier then went on to speak of the manner in which this question had been dealt with, in the case of the various provinces. Those provinces that had not sufficient funds to enable them to build cottages for the reception of new comers, were provided with the necessary sums, and we are quite sure no one grudged them the amount bestowed on them. It is supposed that these suras will be paid back again in a certain number of years, with the interest on them, but this we may be permitted to doubt, and if the abolition of provinces in the North Island becomes an accomplished fact, it is evident that these sums will be a colonial charge. The latter part of the Premier’s speech was almost entirely occupied with the question of these advances, and no doubt our readers will agree with Mr Vogel, when he declared that it was best to call a spade a spade, and consequently, that no matter for what purpose certain sums of money were advanced to any particular part of the colony, they should be recognised as advances. Canterbury is the only province which receives no advance for the erection of cottages, but the sum of £BOOO is put down for depots, whilst Otago receives £IO,OOO advances and £6OOO for depots, or, altogether, twice as much as this province does. We do not in the least quarrel with this ; we are absorbing more immigrants even than our greater sister province, and it we can do so without coming on to the General Government, so much the better ; and it is a circumstance to be proud of that we can retain the immigrants at the rate at which they have been pouring in, whilst being the only province which has not received any advance for the subject from the Government of the day. Every other part of the colony has received sums varying from £60,000 in the case of Wellington, —though of course it must be remembered that this large sum is lent on the security of certain land down to £9OOO in the case of Hawke’s Bay, and £BOOO in the case of Nelson, these sums being largely supplemented, more especially in the case of the latter province. We trust that the mouey is being well laid out, and that the arrival of more labor in the country may render some of the many thousand acres of land which are now lying idle, productive to a degree that shall eventually repay all the outlay bestowed in the introduction of people to cultivate them.