EMIGRATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5456, 21 September 1878, Page 3 (Supplement)

EMIGRATION.

The following letter appeared io the Jersey " Times of the 9th Jane : Sir, —Your correspondent Mr. James Arthur, whose letter you published on the sth instant, wishes your readers to believe that the Australians import shiploads of immigrants (costing £l2 to £2O a head) for the purpose of starving them, or of converting them into beggars ; a class of people the Australians must bo very fond of if they buy them at such a high rate ; but for my part 1 do not believe it. With regard to New Zealand, I am able to give an unqualified contradiction to your correspondent’s* assertion, that Sir Julius Vogel . has turned it into a land of paupers by his immigration policy. In every shipload of immigrants there are sure to be some bad bargains for the colony ; people who, being neither useful nor ornamental at Home, are shipped off to the colonies to get rid of them, probably with false characters and under false representations ; and when these people find that they are actually expected to work in the colony, they become grumbler^—and politicians. It is astonishing how soon a man becomes a politician after a long sea voyage. Neither experience nor education''are required, and the ■creed Sn the coldniesrsso simple—’“The Government .ought to provide easy work at high v wages'"—there you have it in a nutshell. Perhaps J Mr. James Arthur is a politician. Sir Julius Vogel’s Immigration andPnblio .» Work S policy was initiated at a time when the colony »'of New Zealand was in a very depressed state, consequent on a long series of native riistur bances, and the mismanagement of native •• iflairs whilst the British Government . were attempting to conduct that branch of Colon ial Government from Downing-street, and, after many failures, arrived somewhat snddt inly at the decision to withdraw all the Britit h troops, and to leave the matter to the color dsts to settle as best they conld. To the late Sir Donald McLean the colony is mt July indebted for the successful termrna- ’ tion t if the native war. His policy was to take advai itage of the disunion amongst the native tribe j, and employing friendly natives, armed and < >quipped by the colony, to not (in conjunct Jon with colonial European forces) against the t ribos that were hostile to us. The result was to subdue, without crushing the rebels. They r were driven back to their fastnesses, but 'rema ined in a sulky state dispos- dto renew hostilities whenever a favorable occasion might arise. . The colony was then in a state of depress ion arising from the losses by the wars, and I he want of security which prevented the expar udon of settlement of the North Island. Sir J Vogel’s policy to meet this emergency was bold and sanguine, but it has been attended with a great measure of success, and its si recess would have been more perfect but that 1 he colony was then cut up into nine province: i, each with its little government and legist: itiva apparatus in miniature; and these provii ices, having very, imperfect communications • infer je, were each scrambling for the best i ihare they conld secure of the public works - expenditure, instead of the same being administered by the central Government of the colony ’ for the advantage of the whole. Not withstanding these disadvantages the Public 1 Works policy has left the colony in a state" i >f prosperity, and with little fear of any furth* ;r •’ native outbreak of any magnitude. This p nlicy was in short to open up the country b y roads, railways, and telegraphs, and to bring ■i a a large influx of population who shou ' id I >c employed on these works and settled npoi itl ic waste lands of the colony. The money lor these works was borrowed in tho Eng .fish i noney market on favorable terms, and the ' confidence of capitalists in the success of the scheme' is still attested by the daily quotatioi ia of New Zealand securities at a premium. Th e result bas been that the colony no longer ’ coi isists of nine petty semi-independent and far .lated provinces, bat is now one united wl aole. The railways are gradually drawing to gather the different settlements, steamers ply ft eqnently between the ports, several good nr , a iQ fines of road have been opened into tho a ative districts of the North Island, and there 1 1 i a complete system of telegraphs throughout t he colony, reaching every town of any conse<j uenoe, at a tariff of one shilling for ten v vords. There is alsoa snbmarinetelegraphl2oo » niles long connecting with Sydney, New South ’ jVales, and thence with The Eurot pean population of New Zealand is now about • 400,000, whilst the natives only number 40,000. It is true the colony has a debt (including its former war expenditure &c.,) of , .some twenty-one millions, which looks fsrmidable when reckoned at per head of the population. But in estimating the debt we should first consider the assets, and the means of payment. The railways and telegraphs must be •regarded as reproductive assets, and the value of these, together with the remaining Crown lands greatly improved in value by the railways, &0., would go far towards balancing the debt. But by the operation of this policy the private lands will also yield a much larger . revenue from taxation; and again, as a direct : consequence of the increased and increasing : population, the burden of the debt is diatri- 1 bated over a larger area. A* for yonr correspondent’s assertion that i Sir Julius Vogel’s policy has turned the ; ■colony into a land of paupers, I can testify i -that up to the time I left there, in the early 1 part of last year (after a residence of twenty- i .mine years), I never saw or heard of these i • paupers, nor do I see any indication of their 1 t 'existence in my recent files of newspapers. 1 IJp to the time I left I was paying two i guineas per week, or seven shillings per day of : eight hours, for labor, and ! have paid this i regularly for some years. 1 for a gardener I had to pay Ba. or 9s. per i day; fora carpenter, 12s. Eqr female domestic : servants 12s. per week, and very independent i at that. Sometimes an outcry has been raised i in the large towns that men are out of work, i starving, &c., but when, on such occasions, the ] Government has offered work on the roads at ; ss. per day of eight hours, they have had few i applicants; and observe the price of meat is i Jess than half the price in Jersey. In some i • places a leg of mutton can be bought for i cigbteenpence, or even for a shilling. The' 1 truth is, the reports I have alluded to are ] originated: by a few idle demagogues, with a i view to check immigration, and thus raise or i maintain the high price of wages. In a colony, as large as Great Britain, with a i splendid climate, varying according tothepoei- ■ *iem of the settlement (between lat. 34deg. and 1 • d ’47<sdcg). and with a total population of am -no - with land which can bo bought on i 440,0,. - tjayment at £2 per acre, there is little deferred. Siding paupers or beggars, unless fear of fi few.who are too idle or too drunken amongst a i y,, Hawke’s Bay, where I resided to work. Io ty years, tho climate ia somefor the last tyren., -hat of Jersey, and the fogs what warmer than ‘ seldom frost, except on are absent. There is grapes in my garden the hills. I used to grow -igo equal toanv j and on the walls, of nay no. . p have had have seen in Jersey market,. ■ jy; a ; ze , swe ot bunches weighing six P°. u . " ./ and water • potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, afJ do melons, grow freely in the open garde*. >, on most of rile English fruits. J® 8 tlie m ■Standard trees almost wild. I used to gi Sn buckets full to the pigs. Currants donot thrive, but they do well further south. Wha -rill-Tersoymen think of rmw Jvdg (equivalent to January here), jot l f ~ them in a mild season, and m October (equivalent to April), they come in ordinarily, but un fortunately there is no London market at hand. Of late potatoes, I have known 200 tons to be taken off ten acres, and Hava myself IP'O’fo fifteen tons per acre. No manure was used, tne ' virgin soil being very rich. Ido not mean to sav that an average crop would be nearly so great. As for grtin, the South Wand is now shipping large quantities to the English market. I saw in January last, near Timam, one single field of wheat 1200 acres in extent, or nearly two square miles, X a»w another of 700 acres, and many «rom 100 crops and upwards, /fc crop was » ben looking splendid, but was I *• ilievo damaged by heavy rains. The y<eld Is bt \ en as high as seventy bushels to the oh viisli acre. At shearing time and harvest Eo i ’e is often great difficulty in obtaining the thei wary supply of labor, and machinery is nece „ Et j the utmost extent possible for, emp l * , -ting. So much for the country your harvet indent tells us is a laud of paupers, corresp Mio wish to know more will find full Those v, 'on in the “ Official Handbook of New informal. issued by the Government of. the Zealand,” Vis published by. Wyman and Sons, colony* It Lincoln's Inn Fields, Oreab Quo. % ono shilling and sixpence, andia London, pricx , & c . ; full of illustra. . p beg to say that lam not In conclusion ■ ation agents yonr correapouone of the immu ; i ; ,contemptuously. I have no dent winces to so ■ .../„ promotingj emigration; pecuniary Interest m y adopted country, to * . but lam attached -etm. -11 , and which I have which , I hope to i village settlements into ... seen grow from,a fe ' uieinir °f British colonies, one of the most pr°L become, as it is '■»*« *<***>"- ■ I am, &c., jj, jj, SIALT. £3t. Edict's, June 3,1.