The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 55, 4 March 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1872.

At a time when large numbers of immigrants are about to be landed upon the shores of these Islands, in pursuance of the vast scheme to which we are now fully committed, it will be opportune to consider very seriously not only what special attractions this Province offers to newcomers, but (what is eveu of more importance in our case) what class of people will be tempted by such advantages as we really do possess. We can show to the intending farmer nothing like the broad tracts of fertile open land that still await the plough along the West Coast of the North Island, for instance, — tracts which, sooner or later, must, when rendered more accessible by railroads, afford a home for many thousands of settlers with small capital. Nor would ifc be prudent to interfere with the law of supply and demand by pouring a deluge of new-comers into our gold-producing districts ; especially as an abundant supply oi hardy miners has never failed hitherto, a class who have had the double merit of sticking steadily to our diggings so long as they continued fairly remunerative, and of quietly betaking themselves elsewhere, without burdening the rest of the community, whenever the labor market began to be overstocked. And that mysterious spelL which the very name of gold has always possessed for the majority of mankind is not at all likely to fail in attracting at least as much capital to this particular branch of industry as can be at all profitably employed, as many a speculator in the Thames reefs can testify. Our pastoral lands have long been fully occupied and stocked, so that our prosperity as a community would hardly be increased by the substitution of novices for our present experienced class of flockowners. Nor do the exceedingly low prices at which all contracts for public works have been taken lor some time past warrant us in supposing that the importation of any considerable number of settlers, mainly or i entirely dependent upon daily labor for their future maintenance, would be for the advantage either of the community of NelsoD, or of the immigrants themselves. We have reason to know that the work lately given out by our Road Boards and by the managers of the Waterworks, has been executed at such a price as to leave no margin beyond a bare livelihood to the most industrious and skilful, and it is not too much to say that to add largely to our laboring class, in the present depressed state of the province, would simply be to add to the ranks of pauperism.

But it may be naturally objected that if there is no land for the small farmer, no room for the stock-breeder or the flock-owner, no opening for the miner, and no employment for the day-laborer, our community must be in a pitiable and unhealthy condition, that of a human being whose growth is prematurely stunted before he has reached early manhood. Thirty years should count but for a small part of the life of a settlement, and yet we are apparently hidebound, and unable to bear the infusion of new blood. In a certain sense, this view of the case is true enough, nor does much expansion in any of the directions indicated above appear possible just now.

To tempt the helpless and ill-informed peasantry of either Britain or Scandinavia to our shores would at once be a blunder and a crime. Let us frankly confess that for such as they, we have at present no room at our table.

There is another class, however, for whom we have room, and who would derive, we make bold to say, at least as much benefit from their residing amongst us as we should receive in turn. There must be hundreds in the mother-country belonging to the ever-increasing ranks of tbe middle class, brought up, it may be, to no particular trade or profession, whose life is one long struggle to keep up appearances upon .very straitened means. To them we can offer much. Spots are to be bought or rented cheaply enough all round the shores of Blind Bay, combining every advantage of scenery and climate, where such as we have dfl,scrjhed may live on wonderfully small incomes, defying the terrible Mrs. Grundy, respectable and respected. Here, if anywhere, a man may choose his own standard of living without losing caste, and if ambitious, may become, with comparatively slender pretentions, a much bigger man among his neighbors than he could have hoped to be at home.

And for those who have no liking for country life, we can offer a home in what even our bitterest detractors admit to be the prettiest town in the two Islands — where the streets are tbe cleanest and best laid out, tbe water tbe purest, and the

climate the most enjoyable — where education is cheap, abundant and excellent of its kind — where an uuusually large proportion of cultivated people are to be met witb, and where the citizens, as a rule, bear the reputation of being singularly (ahem /) genial and courteous in manner.

The influx of any considerable number of tbe kind of settlers with whom inducements like these would have weight, would naturally tend to add to the sources of attraction that already exist. Our libraries would be increased, our balls, concerts, and other public amusements would become more frequent and more brilliant. We might enumerate other advantages did we not fear that an honest attempt to show how largely the valetudinarian, or the man of fixed, but limited means, would gain from a residence among us might, if pushed to extremes, read like a sorry provincial puff. We trust that the modest bush that we have here hung out may suffice to show where good wine may be found, and what class will benefit most by trying it.