Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1870.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 842, 15 October 1870, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1870.

The Government scheme of introducing %o the Colony a large accession of population, has given rise to much discussion }n, the columns of the. Colonial press. While on the one hand it is argued that a, steady stream of immigration is essential to colonial progress, and will confer benefit upon the country by increasing she number of taxpayers, and by sharing With the of jihe community the heavy

iburdens under "which it lies, make the share of each the lighter•• on the other it is ?aid that in the commercial centres, where the immigrant must at first be placed, there is already an excess of the very class of which new arrivals will consist, and that every accession of such only adds to the number of the poor, and the consequent increase of .destitution and misery. A great deal is said in some quarters about "judicious selection,'' and in fact in this lies the wjiole kernel of the question. Accordingly as immigrants are selected, will their introduction prove a blessing or a curse to the Colony. The kind of persons selected, however, depends much on the agents employed by the Government for the work, and until a thorough reformation is effected in this matter, immigrants will continue to consist of a class which will prove the bane of, and not a boon to, the Colony. It has been, and is, too much the way of Governments in general to confer appointments more as a reward to its subservients than with a view to the fitness of the persons employed. A person having in some way made a Government his debtor, for political services rendered, receives as payment for such services, an appointment as («ay) Immigration Agent at a good salary, and travelling expenses. He takes a kind of holiday trip on the public service to the mother country or elsewhere; and, knowing little or nothing of the matter himself, employs sub-agents to find such parties as are willing to emigrate, and who are paid for their work at per head, according to the number they get. Of course thi§ is just the class that is not wanted; but there are vast numbers of suitable persons ready and willing to emigrate with the hope and intention of working their way upwards in their new home; and as these are just the vety men who will not apply to agents for assisted passages, it follows that they must be sought out —at their homes, on their farms, and in their workshops. The kind of immigration agent wanted is a man of their own class—one who has himself achieved success in the Colony. Let a number of such men be found, and let them return to the localities in which they were formerly resident; let them find the kind of men likely to suceeed from amongst their former friends, and old acquaintances _, let them tell their story to such—a tale of hard v-ork, and yet success over the difficulties to be expected in the path of the colonist. Such men would act the part of immigration missionaries, and the Colony v. ould find its account in their employment by the influx of a higher class than that which usually obtains.