The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1878.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 108, 7 May 1878, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1878.

Throughout the length and breadth of the colony an outcry is being raised against the Government proposal to introduce 5000 more immigrants during the current year. The Opposition journals make a handle of it against the Premier, and want to know how he can reconcile such a step with the professions made by him that he is workiug in the interests of the laboring classes, and those papers which are supporters of Sir i

tS?J*% y > r hi,e thfi y call oufc ** SfL ihe others a & ainst tb^ resumption ot iree Immigration on so large a scale, express their doubts as to the correctness ot the telegram which conveyed the news-, and state their belief that the Gttve.hihten. fa&ve no such intentions as those imputed tothenl. as the statement, however, has hot been contradicted* it hihst.b'e assumed to be authentic. What is to justify Mich m Mux of immigtantg We ate &t a loss to conceive. Ihe labor fo^ket j ju t now apnears to be *»«? stocked in all parts of the colony. During the harvest there may possibly, and no doubt is, a scarcity of men, but harvesting operations do not extend over much more than a quarter of the year, and the wages then earned are not* sufficient to keep those who make them for the remaining nine months. A little more consideration on the part of the Public Works Department might tide over the difficulty experienced by farmers in gathering in their crops, and, at the same timej provide employment for all who are willing to work during the balance of the year. If the contracts were so arranged that the public works at that season, when there is so large a demand for labor in the harvest fields, should be reduced to the minimum, a number of men w'obld be Set free, who, after the grain had been safely housed, could return to the railway and road making, which would provide anipla employment for them during the eight or nine months when their services were not required by the farmers. Thus, wages would be equalised throughout the year, there would be work for all. ahd auy necessity for the further importation of labor, even if it now exists, which we doubt, would be entirely done away wtfh. From the general tone of the press it would appear that if this new immigration scheme be carried into effect, Sir George Grey will lose much of that popularity which he so undoubtedly gained during his recent tour through New Zealand.