A DESIRABLE IMMIGRANT GOES BACK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 2737, 24 May 1924, Page 1

A DESIRABLE IMMIGRANT GOES BACK.

The idiosyneracies of the immigration system are sharply brought lo notiee by the ease of the English immigrant who is being sent bank to England at the Govern - mont’s expense. The immigrant, it seems, name out to New Zealand in ibe belief‘that a position of gas* 1 works manager was waiting for him a I Nelson, hnf on arrival he found to liis “surprise and horror” that f lie gasworks people at Nelson knew nothing about the matter. If the • •use were not so serious it miirhl he likened In the quest of those “grass widows" who came to New Zealand to find husbands who were reputed to he working on moa farms in Lamhlou Quay, or treacle wells ai Troniliam. Mr Massey’s readiness to aeeejit responsibility for the expenses of Ibis immigrant on his return to England suggests that the High Commissioner’s office must be in a ehaotie state in regard to immigration at all events. Here, indeed. is a ease for searching inquiry and if would be interesting to have fuller details from the immigrant himself. The really tragic pari of the whole matter is that a good immigrant is being allowed to go back to England while there are so many undesirables who could lie deporled a! infinitely less expense. As a matter of fact a much closer sevnlinx ought to lie made of the immigrants that are arriving officially and unofficially. In the Supreme Court on Monday an old vagabond. who I lobbied into the Court on a stick, was shown to have arrived in New Zealand from Australia in 1910 as a slowaway, and to have specialised as a sneak thief. He has a record of sixty convictions, of which forty-four were for theft. Very properly, lie was declared an habitual criminal, but unfortunately New Zealand will have to maintain him for the rest of his lite. Not long ago we drew attention to the ease of another habitual criminal, a half-caste native of South Africa who had also arrived as a stowaway, and had been a constant source of expense to the country for years. eW recommended lhc Government to deport all stowaways immediately on arrival or on their first, conviction. The country needs population, hut it must be of the righ! sorf. In that connection we think the Government should have made an effort to retain the Palmerston North immigrant in view of the fact that he appears to have been the victim of Governmental inefficiency and bungling—Christchurch Star.