IMMIGRATION. j

Manawatu Herald, 16 August 1881, Page 2

IMMIGRATION. j

♦ The following is the portion of the Public Works Statement which deals with the above important question — ■ Operations under this head have been almost suspended during the past year. The state of the labor market is still such that we should not be justified in attemptins; to renew a large assisted immigration. Believing, however, as we do, that a considerable addition to thepopulntionof New Zealand is as necessary for the development of its resources as to the prosperity of those who are now settled within its borders, we look forward to being able at no distant date to again afford facilities for Mac introduction of suitable immigrants. But, at present, circumstances do not permit us to do more than to assist a number of persons who have been to some degree surprised by the suspension of subsidized immigration, and to entend this assistance to a very limited number of single women, rod of nominated immigrants who are anxious to join their relations in the colony. The Government look on State immigration operations as involving a higher degree of moral responsibility than perhaps any other with which they are charged. The vote asked for, including a minimum staff in the colony and in England, and the maintenance of buildings, is £24, 973. Before concluding, it will probabl} expected of me, in a statement coming after the budget of my honorable colleague, the Colonial Treasurer, that I should, to some extent, develop the idea under which he asked the House to model the finance of the colony. I refer, of course, to the suggestion for continuing the construction of the public works which have occupied our attention for the last ten years. The Government are fully agreed in the view taken by my honorable colleagne of the immediate financial prospects of the colony, and are not disposed to leave it a mere declaration of opinion. Watching the financial progress of the country with constant attention, and noting every political indication in the North that may have a bearing on the subject, they will occupy themselves early and seriously with the study ef plans for accomplishing the completion of the great works in whioh the colony is so deeply interested. The character of the proposals to bo made on the meeting of next Parliament must depend to a great degree on the financial experiences of the current year. Bat I wish now to affirm a few principles which will be observed in ouijpropositions, sliould we be honored with the continued confidence of the country, and should our finance, as we anticipate, justify our immediate forward movement. First, we •hall make our proposals as ministers of the whole colony, although not neglecting the claims, needs, and prospects of any one of its varied districts. Secondly, we shall aak the Legislature to define itsfutureundertakings with all possible precision, and to give the fullest guarantee in its power that the undertakings so defined shall be faithfully carried out. Thirdly, we shall ask that future borrowing operations be litni ted strictly in amour t by the calculable prospects of the country, and that borrowed money be employed only for works whioh give reasonable promise of being remunerative within such a period as sound finance contemplates. There are indications of a great and early change in the prospects of New Zealand, and especially of the northern districts — signs that one longstanding obstacle to their progress is about to disappear. There are few parts of this favored land of whioh we may not rationally hope, net to say calculate, that their special advantages of climate or soil,

iccessibility, mineral or other wealth, will n due time make them populous and pros* perous. It is the interest of all to open jvery part of the land to enterprise and iniustry; and, in askinsr authority to make the expenditure out of the Public Works Fund necessary for the study of the works bo be undertaken— we hope in the early future — we are asking the Legislature to act in a hearty national spirit, to resolve that the waste spaces shall be developed ; that a yet wider field shall be opened for our children, and for a multitude of our countrymen and race in this land, unsurpassed for climate and soil, and for the variety of its resources.