GODS OWA COUNTRY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 804, 27 January 1910, Page 4

GODS OWA COUNTRY.

A LUSAI'I'OINTKD IMMIGRANT.

TKU.S 11 UR OWN TALK

The glowing accottuis icgarding " ('.nil’s' Uivu Country which arc circulated at Home induced a certain school mistress to make her way to New Zealand about lour veals ago; but no'Y hnd i tig tlljt it is not I he [inr.idUe she imagined it to he, lid soul is 111 1 ol inciignation. At lhe Magistrate s Court, Ch i istclnr rch, recently she was su-.d lor two instilments on a phonograph, interest, broken records, etc , amounting in all to ps ii I. She did not appear, Ini; sent the following note to the CU rk ol the Couit:

" I lined the m i bine, thinking it woo'd be a bmefit to the count y cliildicn in training ill ear, as they have little opportunity oi hearing good music, and 1 am expected to u-ach nui-.ic in the school. The committee objecte I, however, and as 1 found I could not keel) the bite going when this school di i not reach the standard 1 ha 1 exp led, tile ma t honouiabic thing to do was io senU it hack. It was very little use. .Since coming to New Zealand about lour years ago we haw on lour different occasions 1 1 it'd to settle in a place, hut as no woik co ild be had we were compelled to sell our belongings in order to get a little food to cnalve us to exist. No other word could lie used, as it was merely ‘existing.' It wasn’t living, and as a resu t my husband’s health sullored. 1 obtained my piesciit employ men a year ago. it is value for /,rod per annum, and I have six childien to feed and clothe, and 1 cannot expect to overtake my debts in less than another year. All I car say is that New Zealand is not n country lor strangers, either edit cafed or uneducated, as our ci - cumslances go to prove. We haw had to exist !or four years on le s j than two years’ work, and that : t a veiy low rale of pay. At present anyone coming to examine my enforced manner of living and thiuk that I am a schoolteacher would Hud the position a bit hid - crons, as 1 have barely necessaries. However, the old maxim still holds good : ‘Once a lady, alwa; s a lady.’ lu the Old Country in., husband could keep bis family, atrd there was tto need for me t> work, and our name never had occasion to be made public for debt or anything else ; but itr ‘God’s Owrt Country’ I have had to turn to, and all I cart say is that I am thankful my constitution has not suffered as much from the ‘existing’ as others of my family. Wt could pay all our passages to New Zealand, atrd we had five childrert, rang in g from six months to eight years. We were not assisted in any way, cither to come to New Zealand or since we arrived, and if I had my passage money again I would enquire what kind of a country it was before I would believe all the reports sent Home to the newspapers. It is a crying shame to bring families to a country like this to starve them. Many a colony would only be too pleased to have a family to increase the population, and would see to if that the father would get work at his prolcssion to keep them in food and clothes. We had our eyes open as we passed through the Australian cities —Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney—-and we believed that if we could get back to either one of those cities we would gel on all right. It seems to me there is nothing in New Zealand hut boycott. lam always willing to pay when I have the means.”

The letter caused a great deal of amusement in Court. As Mi Mosley, who appeared for plaintiff, could not produce an agreement to pay interest, the case was adjourned for a week.