THOSE UNDESIRABLE IMMNGRANTS. Their Profitable Employment.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 148, 2 May 1903, Page 8

THOSE UNDESIRABLE IMMNGRANTS. Their Profitable Employment.

DR. A. McARTHTTR, S.M., confronted with nine Sydney stowaways, on Monday last, gravely observed tha.t he wished there was a Government farm in New Zealand on which the said stowaways could ''work out" the amount it cost this country to deal with them. On the same day a Press wire came through saying that a farmer at Invercargill was fined for allowing thistles to grow on his land. Apparently, the land adjoined a Government area, for the Magistrate remarked that failure of the Government to> eradicate noxious weeds was no excuse. That is to say that, in order to keep one's land clear, and oneself out of court, it is necessary to clear the land of non-liable holders as well as one's own. * * ♦ Perhaps, the wind won't blow Government seed over a wire fence, howevei, but it seems to have done so m quite a large number of districts in the colony. It is an old saymg in agncultural districts that land that won't grow- weeds is not much good. The Government has a heap of good land. Also, it is getting an influx of desirable and undesirable stowaways from the "other side," and the remedy for those thistle-infected areas seems right to hand. All the stowaways recently arrived, and to arrive, could be accommodated with enough noxious weed "grubbing" to speedily ©radicate the pest, and to pay expenses of prosecutions, as long as a thistle or a dock, a clump of ragwort, broom, or gorse remains on Government land situated in such a position that the scourge may be selfsown on land held by people who are forced to eradicate it. * * * It is not a fair thing to fine the sufferers from State carelessness. One can never foresee' the moment when one's favourite hedge may be ordered to be rooted up. An Eketahuua settler lecently was ordered to eradicate biooni which he had planted to pievent river encroachment, and is afraid to plant anything else. He does not know at what moment an amateur botanist will warn the Government that the fence he has in mind will be doomed, on private property only. Sending stowaways up country to "cut out" then- fares and court costs is as feasible as sending convicts to Rotorua to plant trees. It would be a good intioduction to the country, which wants labour if the reports of farmers throughout the colony may be believed. * * * You will notice that the seven men charged before the Magistrate on Monday were fined £1, in default seven days. A man aching for work, as probably the stowaways were, could conquer a lot of ragwort or thistles in that time. It would serve to get the

cramp out of his limbs, and wear off the seasickness. There is no serious un-; employed difficulty in New Zealand at present, and our own people, being! well employed, there is no rush for work' weeding paddocks owned by tihe Government. Here is a chance which, might well be availed off. If the drought-driven Australian uitlanders want to go> on the land, Government can accommodate them until the debt they owe is wiped off.