The Globe. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1877.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 995, 3 September 1877, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1877.

Tut: Deport of the Immigration OJiicer here for the year ended Jnne 30th has been laid before Parliament, and generally it shows a very satisfactory state of things. Since July, 1870, seven ships with immigrants have arrived direct, and two part shipments by vessels calling at other ports. The total number thus introduce* 1 amounted to 2011 souls. The number of single women introduced during the year, it may he noted, was 390 ; single men, 533; and married couples, 809. So far as the records of the department go, they show that no diiliculty has been experienced by the immigrants in obtaining employment at fair rates. The return further gives us the total number of souls introduced into the district since the passing of the Public Works Act up to the close of the departmental year. The figures are 21,311 souls, equal to 17,803 statute adults. That is, that during a period of some seven years, we have increased our population by immigration by a trifle over 21,000 souls. That this large number of people should have been absorbed, and without any material disturbance of the labour market, speaks very highly alike for the method of conducting the immigration and the resources of the district. We learn, also, that the nominated system is working satisfactorily, and that during the year the number of nominations received has been fully up to the standard of preceding ones. In the last paragraph of the return, the Immigration Officer reports that satisfactory progress has been made during the year in the collection of immigrants’ bills and notes. Taken altogether, the report to which we have been alluding is one which shows that during the year good progress has been made in the work ct settling! he country, and that it has been done without disturbance of the labor market.

To all appearance there is going to be no lack of candidates at the forthcoming election of Councillors, as quite a goodly array of aspirants for civic honors are mentioned. Amongst

others we notice a distinguished meant in the person of Mr. B. Cass. This o-entleman’s theories regarding the shape of the earth are well known. He boldly asserts his linn belief in its flatness, and utterly ignores and overlooks all that science during the last three hundred years has taught. In this age of scientific progress, it is something to he proud of, that we possess in our midst a gentleman who has the courage to deny the most elementary of astronomical facts. If this bo so, the ratepayers should feel flattered that the inestimable services of so distinguished a man are placed at their disposal. But whether the citizens of Christchurch can afford to return him is another question. Should the cry of “ Cass and Flatness ” induce the ratepayers to rush to the poll and place him in the Council, they might find after all that they had made a mistake. Once elected, the Council might, in deference to the wishes of the ratepayers, make him Chairman of the Works Committee. What might happen in such a case we dare hardly contemplate. As it is, we are fond enough of malting expensive experiments in Christchurch and its suburbs. On more than one occasion our engineers have tried their utmost to evade the simple laws of nature, and as a rule they have had the worst of it. They have tried before now to induce water to flow up an incline, but the experiment has been expensive and, on the whole, unsatisfactory to the ratepayers. These mistakes, however, were due not so much to erroneous theories as to careless work. But were Mr Cass elected Chairman of the Works Committee, what guarantee have we against the money of the citizens being spent in accordance with some new and startling scientific theory f He would, in this case, have an opportunity of demonstrating his “ flat” hypothesis in connection with the formation of the streets and side-channels, and the ratepayers might have cause to regret that they had, by electing him, pratically demonstrated Mr Cass’s pet theory.