MR HOLLOWAY’S VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 313, 14 June 1875, Page 4

MR HOLLOWAY’S VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND.

At a meeting of the Executive Council of the National Agricultural Laborer’s Union, Mr Holloway read a report on his recent visit to New Zealand. We extract the following passages:— Perhaps no one individual ever before had afforded to him such rare opportunities for acquiring a general knowledge of the colony as myself. No expense was spared by either the General or Provincial Governments. All my movements were arranged and carried out under the direction of either the General or Provincial Governments. But while they provided the means, to their honor I may say they neversought undulyto influencemy mind in favor of any particular province, but left me unfettered and free, and from my own observations, to draw my own conclusions and form my own opinions. I mixed pretty freely with all classes of the community—from the Hon J, Vogel (Premier) down to the lowest settler; from the intelligent and brave warrior chief down to the meanest and most ignorant native occupying the rudest Maori whare. I have associated with the great landed proprietor, and with the less affluent settler, who,is steadily advancing ppwaitl to ft more prospeious posi-

tion. I have met with the employer of labor and the employed, with the prosperous and the unsuccessful, and I have come to the conclusion that any of our laborers gifted with temperate habits, such as sobriety, industry, frugality, and perseverance, may, in the course of a few years, become occupiers of land themselves, and have placed to their account at the bankers a considerable sum for times of sickness and old age. Indeed, gentlemen, I feel convinced that New Zealand, with its fine, healthy climate, its salubrious air, its fertile soil, its mild winters, its temperate summers, its liberal land laws, its fine educational system, its freedom from State Church ism, and its civil and religious privileges, is second to no other colony in point of the advantages and privileges it has to offer to intending emigrants of the proper class. The work and wages question is probably the most important which can be brought before the attention of those who think of making New Zealand their home. The colony of New Zealand is very prosperous, never more so. The demand for labor is great. Notwithstanding the large numbers who have recently emigrated to its shores, the demand still continues, and now that large tracts of country are being opened up by railways and other reproductive works, the colony for some years will be prepared to absorb annually a large number of our sober and industrious laborers, together with a fair sprinkling of tradesmen, and men with small capital. All the emigrants who go out to this fine colony with the intention of working their way upward can find ready employment at good wages. This is evident to all, in the immente number of letters which reach our shores by every mail, giving glowing and encouraging accounts of the success that attends their industrious efforts in their newly adopted country. New Zealand is no country for the idle, improvident, and dissolute ; they had better stay at home. Men do not pick up gold in the streets in the colony; and the ne’er-to-do-well man in this country, who has fallen out with work, and is too fond of his drops, had better not emigrate to New Zealand, but for the energetic, pushing, selfreliant, and persevering man there is no lack of employment—good work, hard work, too; but the men out there have something to keep them up to it. Then, they only work eight hours a day—an admirable system this, as it gives the laborer time for recreation and for mental improvement. (This system might, if adopted, prove a great advantage to our laborers at home ; here is a hint for them anyhow.) Then they work with a will, because in many parts they are paid eight shillings for eight hours’ work. It is advisable for emigrants, as a rule, not to settle down in the thickly-populated towns, but push their way up into the interior of the country, where labor is in greater demand, and where it is much easier to secure a piece of freehold, and run up a neat wooden cot of their own. I had the pleasure of welcoming friend Legget to the very prosperous province of Canterbury last with me, and on the following morning I procured him a situation at 12s per day. A few days ago I was informed upon good authority that he was making his way and getting on very comfortably, and that he had already built a house of his own. A noble testimony this to the success which invariably attends the settlement of the right class of men in New Zealand. The Government is still giving free passages to eligible individuals, but it is thought they will not be continued for more than another year, so that it will be necessary to strike while the iron is hot. Assisted passages will probably be continued for some years to come. I have much advice to give to intending emigrants, which I cannot embody in a report, but which will be brought out in my lectures. I cannot close my report without expressing my thanks to the Governments of New Zealand, both General and Provincial, for the opportunities and facilities they willingly and generously afforded me of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the resources and advantages of the colony, and also for the uniform kindness and courtesy which I everywhere experienced. I also endeavored, every mail, to keep you acquainted with my progress through the colony, and in the lengthy letters I forwarded for publication every month I stated my own views and opinions pretty freely as to what I thought of the various provinces and the inducements each presented as fields of settlement for the class of people I represent. Gentlemen, in laying this report before you, I have endeavored, simply, but honestly and truthfully, to give you my own convictions and opinions of this colony of New Zealand, and its resources as a suitable field for the settlement of large numbers of English farm laborers, with the certain and encouraging prospect before them, if they possess the qualities I have, elsewhere named, of rising in the social scale, and eventually becoming the occupiers of farms themselves. I leave you to judge whether I have done my duty, and also as to the advisability of your embracing the opportunities now presented by the New Zealand Government, in giving free passages, of pushing emigration to that fine colony—the Britain of the South—and encouraging it to the utmost of your power, I am, gentlemen, yours fraternally, 0. Holloway.