WHAT THAT THINK OF US AT HOME.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 211, 4 September 1880, Page 4

WHAT THAT THINK OF US AT HOME.

The London correspondent of the Auckland Herald writes :— Just now there is a curious temper in the public mind here about colonials. We are all looked, upon as liar?. The complaint of an emigrant who has been in the country a fortnight without finding work is printed end read, and his ridiculous denunciations of a country be has not had time to know are believed; while uuiversal discredit attaches to the disclaimer of a colonist who krioios. There was a curious instance in the Times last week. An anonymous paragraph appeared in its columns containing as many lies about the colony as cnuld be expressed in twenty lines: — * { Food was exorbitantly dear, distress end panic all but universal the debt thirty-five millions, and it was probable that there would have to be an appeal to England to relieve the distrt si in the colony." I happened to know tbat Judge Gillies, who bad just reached London, wrote to tbe limes giving its statements indignant and terophatio denial, attaching his name aod .office he held; but his letter was thrown in the waste paper basket. Another letter from an old colonist who could speak with equal authority met with the same fate, and a mild rejoinder from tbe pen of Sir Julias Yogel was only admitted, I lelieve, after very considerable pressure was brought to bear upon the paper, and that lying paragraph is finding its way into the papers all over the country. Messrs Grant and Foster are back in England, and havo sent to the printer a report of New Zealand which I am told will be. highly favourable to the colony, and which will probably have a large circulation among the- tnoet desirable classes. They, by the way, are coming in for their share of aluso here. Several letters have already appeared in English newspapers warning farmers against them, and intimating that they hnve fallen into tbe hands'of the New Zealand Government, and have caught the lying spirit which is supposed to inhabit all who have been | in the colony more than a month ! Vesey Stewart is busy organizing a party lo settle bis Te Puke block at Tauranga, and a second pamphlet from the pen of the Rev J. Berry is to be seen on the English book-stalls. This pawphlet is entitled "Farming in North New Zealand," and. is devoted mainly to a description of Auckland ani tbe Waikito. Its main purpose appears to be to promote the organised immigration of farmers with capital to j certain Waikato estates which are already improved* One Mr Low is also in London, attempting something similar for Nelson. A pamphlet from the pen of Mr F. W. Isitt is also iv the press, so that those in England who want 'the truth upon. New Zealand matters ought to be able to get it from all these independent witnesses. The most popular colony just now with the British farmer is Canada, the Canadians having sent . an influential representative to London to push their interests. The report of the Scotch delegates who visited the Dominion lately seems to haye produced a deep impression here. Land at a dollar an j acre, with soil ten feet deep, containing in its virgin state as much ammonia as good manure, which will grow fifty j bushels of wheat to the acre for a life- ! time without wearing out, and all within ten days of London, certainly looks tempting, the risk of having your

! nose frozen off notwithstanding. The! extensive emigration to Canada is having its natural effect of sending up the price of land. I heard only to-day of a gentleman "who bought an estate there two years ago for £5000, who could sell it to-day for five times that sum. South Africa, too, is bidding for the British farmer. I see that this colony is offering "its best land to selectors at 10a per acre, to be paid for in ten years at Is per acre per annum, and is giving a free passage to selectors." I cannot think of anything that would so promote the emigration to New Zealand of the English yeoman as placing some of its Crown lands for selection in this country, surrejed, and accurately described, and on deferred payment.