THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1572.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1131, 13 March 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 1572.

It is expected that during the present year, there will be a very largo increase in the immigration from Europe under the Acts passed last session. It has been stated on the authority of the AgentGeneral that the number of immigrants brought to the Middle Island generally will in all probability be more than double what it has been during any year for the last four or five, and if the Government see that a still larger number can be absorbed with advantage, they will no doubt use their utmost endeavors to supply the demand. The Minister of Public. Works (Mr J. Ormond) appears to be laboring under the impression that even after the very liberal Bupplies we expect to receive from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, and the north of Europe, there will still exist, when all the proposed public works are initiated, such a demand for labor that the Government will be under the necessity of assisting Chinese immigration. Mr Ormond must either have been reading the reports of indignation meetings in the Grey District against the do-nothing poJicy of the Nelson Superintendent aud the same .gentleman's after -.dinner speeches and pre mises, or he must have been iv a state of sublime ignorance as to the present condition of the labor market in the Nelson Province, when he penned tho following letter to his Honor the Superintendent of Nelson: — "SirHaving in view the large demand for labor caused by the railways and other public worka now being undertaken in the Colony, and the difficulty experienced in inducing a sufficient European immigration to supply that demand, the expediency of allowing railway contractors to employ Chinese labor to a limited extent has been suggested. Before adopting such a course, or taking any steps to carry it into practical effect, I should be obliged by an expression of your Honor's opinion as to the geueral expediency of such a proposal as affecting your Province, and as to the extent to which Chinese labor should be introduced. I may state that it is already evident that the want of labor will prove a serious hindrance to the economical administration and rapid development of the public works scheme, and unless every available means of obtaining labor be temporarily adopted until a sufficient flow of European immigration shall have been established, great difficulty and vexatious delays will be experienced in the execution of railway and other important works. It is truly ridiculous to read such an effusion from the pen of a Minister for Public Works— a gentleman who is supposed to be intimately acquainted above all things with the state of the labor market in the various porks' ot the Colony, in order that he may be iv a position to say whether any public work proposed can possibly be carried out. Under the pretence of applying Chinese labor to the public works about to bo carried out in tho Colony, the Minister for Public Works is very plainly, working a ruse to obtain from the Superintendents of Provinces an expression of opinion on the Report of the Select Committee on Chinese Immigration which sat during the last session of Parliament, no doubt with the view of making some practical use of it when the next Parliar«pnt/ meets. At first wo were inclined to tli'nk that the above was an official circular which would be sent to the Superintendents of all the Provinces, but Burely the Minister for Public Works would never venture upon addressing a Bimilar letter to the Superintendent of

Otago, whose Province is overrun with Chinamen, .and whose'&ete noir is " that Heathen Chinee." Such a letter would surely not be addressed to the Superintendents of either Canterbury or Auckland, in both of which demonstrations of "the unemployed" take place periodically, and call forth extraordinary exertions on the part of these Governments to meet the necessities of the case ; and we feel assured these circulars would not be sent to the Superintendents of Wellington, Hawke's Bay, or Taranaki, which are under the especial care of the General Government, and into which they intend to turn the stream of Scandinavian immigrants. The closer the subject is looked at it appears the more wonderful that such a document should be forwarded to the Superintendent of Nelson by Mr Ormond, because Mr Reeves is the Resident Minister for Public Works for the Middle Island, and, according to our understanding of the geography of the Colony, the Province of Nelson is within his jurisdiction. We are the more inclined to think that Mr Ormond has been chaffing the Superintendent on the result of his recent visit to .the West Coast, and that a letter which was supposed to be private has been made a public document. Since it has been so made, and as we have no wish to detract from the importance of the reply sent by his Honor, we publish it as follows: — "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, during my absence on the West Coast, of your letter on the 22nd January, in which you ask for an expression of my opinion as to the general expediency, as affecting this Province, of the introduction of Chinese labor in the execution of railways and other public works. In reply, I beg to state that I am not prepared to recommend that any steps should be taken for the introduction of Chinese labor into the Province. 1 have come to this conclusion from the conviction that, so far as opening exists for the employment of Chinese in a manner profitable to the Colony and to themselves, experience tends to show that a quite sufficient influx of these people may be looked for without taking direct action for its encouragement. With respect to the Fox Hill railway, for which the working survey has now been authorized, there will be no difficulty in obtaining a full 3upplyof labor on the spot at reasonable rates'. Indeed, the settlers of the district have been so impoverished by the failure of their crops, occasioned by the long drought, together with the low prices obtainable for produce, that a large number of them are looking forward with the utmost anxiety to the opportunity which they hope will be afforded to them of getting employment upon this work to enable them to support their families. I trust the Government will not take any action, either by the introduction of Chinese or otherwise, which may be calculated to disappoint these reasonable expectations." This is almost the only judicious step which the Superintendent has taken in ( public matters for some time, and if there was anything serious meantby the letter of the Minister of Public Works, the decided reply he has received will put a stop to asisted Chinese immigration. Mr Curtis has spoken for the clisbiivi tiirougn -which tne Fox Hill Railway line is proposed to go. . There is quite sufficient European labor there at present, even without the expected arrivals from Europe, to construct the railway ; and we can speak for the district through which the Brunner line is to pass, that even now there is enough and to spare of surplus labor, sufficient to carry the railway not only to the coal-mine, but if need be to Nelson itself. We hope, if Mr Ormond was not^ playing a practical joke on Mr Curtis, that the plain, answer he has received will be carefully considered, because we feel assured that the subsidising of Chinese immigration would arouse a feeling of determined opposition throughout the whole Colony. '