MR. HOLLOWAY'S VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4267, 23 November 1874, Page 3

MR. HOLLOWAY'S VISIT TO NEW ZEALAND.

Miv Holloway, the representative of the English National Agricultural Laborers' Union, being . about to take his . departure for England in the Halcione, /which leaves Wellington harbor to-day (weather favoring), the present may not be an inopportune moment for giving a resume" of his mission, and the results o£ his observations during his nine months' sojourn, in the colony. Mr. Holloway's movements and opinions gather importance from the fact that he is essentially a representative man—a man whose word will sway the opinions of thousands of agricultural laborers in the old country who have for years, and perhaps throughout their lives, been the slaves of the cruellest of all oppressors—capital. By this class he was despatched to New Zealand " to ascertain from personal observation the advantages held out by the colony as a suitable field for immigration from England, for settlement of some of the hundreds of. the toiling masses of fellow-countrymen, who are under paid and under fed, and who are really anxious to improve their circumstance by removing to more suitable fields of labor where their services will meet with a fair and proper remuneration." That this colony does present such a field Mr. Holloway is fully convinced, though he is somewhat reticent in furnishing detailed information, from a desire not to anticipate the report which he will have to present to the grand organization of which he is a member. As he himself explains, his mission was not so much to impart information as to collect it, but in a letter recently published he states that " he has formed a very high opinion of New Zealand, taken as a whole, as a most suitable field for the settlement of the sober and industrious farm laborers of his own country. New Zealand wants no coloring, no puffing up. Its genial climate, its fertile soil, its salubrious air, its large mineral resources, its magnificent scenery, and its civil and religious institutions, are alone sufficient to recommend it as a desirable Colony in which to settledown." It has been frequently remarked of Mr. Holloway that he is a shrewd observer. Conversation with him verifies the opinion. Thi3 is important to New Zealand, because the undoubtedly favorable impresson he has formed of the colony will be the more.forcibly impressed upon the " toiling masses" whose cause he came here to advance. He has of course encountered provincial jealousies, and received curses from those who blessed him, because in his progression he discovered country superior, to that first visited by him. The resources of Otago, could not fail to impress him favorably, but Mr. Holloway could not help feeling convinced as he travelled further North that the fertile land of Taranaki excelled that of all New Zealand, an opinion he still holds to even after visiting the Waikato, Tauranga, and the whole of the East Coast. Marlborough is spoken of as affording a very limited field for settlement, on account of the lands of the province being too much in the hands of large landed proprietors. The Manawatu, Mr. Holloway thinks, has a fine future before it, but he had no opportunity of visiting the Wairarapa on account of a break in his arrangements. Canterbury possesses some splendid land, , but no facilities are offered for the formation of special settlements, a subject upon which Mr. Holloway's opinions are very pronounced.- Eor this reason he selects Tauranga, Taranaki, and the Upper Waikato as suitable localities for the settlement of immigrants of a class who are very numerous in England, namely, the sons of farmers, men with sufficient capital of their own to start farming operations upon arrival in the colony. There are in England large numbers of well-to-do fanners who enjoy a comfortable living themselves, but who are unable to start their sons in life on farms of their own, on account of the growing tendency on the part of landed proprietors to absorb the small farms into large estates. \ To Btarfc farming in England now-a-dayß requires an amount of capital such as is not possessed by the class spoken of, and Mr. Holloway is of opinion that if special settlements were started on the deferred payment system,. and proper arrangements made for ventilating the advantageous terms offered by the colony, large numbers of these fanners' sons would be willing to cast in their lot with the older settlers. At present he is completely in the dark as to the intentions of the Government in regard to himself upon his arrival in England ; but he is very decided in the opinion, which is largely shared by people in this_ colony, that unless the vast amount of information which he has collected is utilised, by appointing him to lecture throughout the agricultural counties of England,, the great purpose of his visit to the colony will be altogether missed. Mr. Holloway states what is perfectly true, that the English agricultural laborer looks upon immigration agents despatched from the colony with suspicion—as persons interested only in the ?'head money" they obtain. Mr. Holloway is a man sent out by them to,see with his own eyes and report to them with his own mouth. The fact of his appointment implies on their part implicit faith in his judgment and his truthfulness. His statements will be received without doubts and misgivings. The people who are waiting to hear the story from his lips are the people required in the colony. The shiploads of immigrants who arrive almost daily, are absorbed because ' an enormous demand for labor exists, but the class of people most desired are those who are not likely to succumb to the blandishments of the colonial agent. Mr. Holloway and the laborers of the agricultural counties are allied by a bond of sympathy which cannot exist in the other case. Members of the Union naturally feel an interest in each other's welfare, so that Mr. Holloway's influence would be tenfold that of a colonial agent. His sphere should therefore bo enlarged. If he be allowed to settle down in his original sphere. he will come into contact only with members of the Union in his own distinct. Arrangements could be made by which he might be brought into personal contact with over 100,000 or more people by lecturing in the different agricultural counties. It has been arranged that Mr. Holloway should meet Mr. Vogel in London, and in the interest of the colony the expense already incurred should be turned to profitable account by effecting somo such arrangement. The rates of wages paid to agricultural laborers in England are as follows : —ln Dorsetshire and Somersetshire 10s. a week, the men finding thcmsolves; in Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Buckingshire, and Berkshire, I2s. a week ; in Warwickshire, 15s. a week ; in Lincolnshire, 18s. a week ; and in Yorkshire, 20s. a week. The difference between these rates and those paid in the colony ought to form a Btrong inducement to people of this class to emigrate, but the laborers mußt be spoken to by a man in whom they placo perfect reliance, and Mr. Holloway is such.ft man. Ho says "I shall represent to them simply—but faithfully and honestly, and forcibly—the opinions I have myself, as a practical man, formed as to the inducements and advantages held out by this colony of New Zealand ns a suitablo field for settlement of men of the right class—the sober, the industrious, and the persevering." He i» evidently very fully convinced himself

of the advantages of residence in the colony compared to the condition of things in the old country, and he cannot fail to bring others to the same way of thinking if he have opportunity to unfold the immense stock of knowledge he has acquired in regard to it. '■ ''•''•' ;