THE GOVERNMENT AND THEIR IMMIGRATION POLICY.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 52, 20 January 1872, Page 4

THE GOVERNMENT AND THEIR IMMIGRATION POLICY.

[lndependent.] It is not a little amusing to see the shifts which the journals opposed to i ] < present Government are driven to adopt in order to find some cause of complaint with its actions. At first the most bitter antagonism to the whole policy of immigration and public works was indulged in. It was stigmatised as rash, gambling, and ruinous. It was denounced as impossible of accomplishment—the money would never be raised, or, if obtained, be raised only at a frightful rate of discount. But when the colony had not only by a large majority in the session of 1870, but by the election of a still larger majority of members of the new Parliament, pronounced emphatically in favor of the progressive policy of the Ministry, little remained for the opposition papers to preach their sermons upon, except the manner in which the policy was to be carried out. It was alleged that the Government would so nurse the administration of the Public Works and Immigration Act as to keep baits continually dangling before the various constituencies without seriously undertaking the active work of carrying out the proposals authorised by the Assembly. But when after the termination of the session Ministers set themselves to work earnestly to make provision for the proper and efficient administration of the act, they were met on all sides by sneers from the opposition papers—first because of the patronage at their disposal, and generally upon the manner in which it has been exercised. Of course in the carrying out of such a large work as the Government has taken in hand proper machinery is absolutely indispensible. It is not (o be supposed that the public works can be constructed, immigration directed to our shores, and the advances of money for water supply upon the goldfields carefully watched without the creation of officers for the purpose of securing efficiency and protecting the colony against loss. Whilst a short time ago the Opposition cry was that the Government was dilatory, now it is raised against the necessary appointments the Government were compelled to make or else allow the whole scheme to remain dormant. The creation of a Resident Minister for the Middle Island was imperative, and the fact that Mr Reeve’s appointment has received the unanimous sanction of the provincial authorities of the Middle Island is a sufficient justification of the course taken by the Government. Some people ask why the management of the public works in the various provinces should not be delegated to the Provincial Governments. To that we have simply to say that the Assembly emphatically recorded its protest against any such plan by striking out in the amended act of last session the provisions contained in the old act for enabling the Provincial Governments to prescribe the works to be carried out. Upon no point was the feeling of the House of Representatives stronger than with regard to the necessity of preserving the colonial policy of immigration and public works from the influence of local political bodies. The Provincial Governments could not do the work one jot cheaper, whilst by handing over the work to them all responsibility to parliament would cease.

With regard to the management of the immigration scheme. Is it expected that the colony can hope to receive any large accession to its population without making use of the means that must be adopted if any success is to be obtained ? Probably some people think that a mere announcement that New Zealand is willing to receive a certain number of immigrants would suffice. Nothing could be more foolish than such an idea. Population is a commodity for which there is a brisk competition, and colonies that can offer greater superficial inducements than this to the emigrating classes of Europe find it necessary to use every available means to obtain a preference. New Zealand is a colony the real merits of which are less known in Great Britain than those of any other part of the British Dominions. Its distance adds to the objections created by want of knowledge of its condition and resources, and if we are to obtain any considerable immigration of the right sort from

England it can only be achieved by most strenuous exertions. The main thing is to provide information for the people, and experience has proved that personal accounts and lectuies fiom trustworthy and accredited persons are worth more than whole libraries of books in influencing the minds of those desirous of emigrating. Acting on this opinion the Government made arrangements the other day, upon the strong recommendation of the Superintendent of Otago, with Mr Thomas Birch, of Dunedin, for his services as a temporary immigration agent in Scotland. Mr Birch several years ago performed good work in the same capacity for the province of Otago, and he will no doubt be a valuable aid to the Government in procuring immigrants from Scotland. Another gentleman, Mr Seaton, has also been engaged from Otago in a similar capacity. The appointment of Mr Friberg, of Hawke’s Bay, as an agent in Scandinavian made with the same object—that of making New Zealand known to his countrymen and inducing desirable emigrants to come to this oolony. The appointment of persons resident in Great Britain as immigration agents would not have resulted in much good. Unless the people could communicate with or listen to some one who could speak from actual experience and who was duly accredited by the Government of the colony they would place little confidence in what they heard. All the sub-agents will be under the immediate control of the Agent-General, and their services will not be retained longer than is absolutely necessary. In some cases the Government is at no greater expense than paying the passage money of the agent and his necessary travelling expenses whilst on the business of promoting emigration in Great Britain. The vast importance of carrying on the work of immigration contemporaneously with that of public works is so patent that it needs no argument to support it. Those who know anything of the condition of the colony know that we have not anything like the necessary amount of labor available for pushing on the public works as quickly as it is desirable they should be, and any want of activity or any neglect of the means to procure additional population would be a deserved reproach upon the Government And we are glad to learn that much of the jealousy with which the Provincial Governments have regarded the powers conferred upon the General Government in respect to the management of immigration and the taking of land required for immigration purposes is disappearing. The most pleasing conversion is in the case of Mr Rolleston, the Superintendent of Canterbury, who for a long time protested strongly against the management of immigration being taken away from the Provincial Governments, and as strongly objected to the compulsory taking of land for the settlement of immigrants. That gentleman has at last reconciled himself to the existing state of things, and is, we are informed, rendering very loyal assistance to the Government in relation to the successful carrying out of their policy. We owe Mr Rolleston an apology upon this point, for only a few days ago we took occasion to place his conduct in this respect in unfavorable comparison with that of the Provincial Government of Wellington. But we have this excuse: that Mr Rolleston is so difficult to understand. One never knows by anything be has done before what he is going to do in the future. He deprecated the Government policy from the first, but we are heartily gratified with the information that be is at last extending the right hand of fellowship in the work of restoring the colony and developing its great resources. He has not been a very great political sinner, but still the Government may rejoice over his repentance.