The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1876.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 141, 16 August 1876, Page 2

The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1876.

Whilst fully concurring in the policy contained in the Public Works and Immigration scheme, as a whole, and admitting the great benefits it has so far conferred on New Zealand, it is clear that it is high time u great chock should now be put on immigration for a few years, even if the financial position of the colony did not compel retrenchment in this direction. In the Premier’s Financial Statement he .-aid, “ Wo propose to continue the progress of trunk railways, and a reasonable expenditure on Immigration. The latter, we think, should be temporarily reduced because of a somewhat less demand for labor.” In the same statement, in explaining how the Government propose to expend the proposed two million loan, ho allots £1,250,000 for public works and Immigration, As to the necessity for the completion of trunk linos already entered on, there can hardly be a second opinion, but that to do so necessitates further immigration of the kind that has been poured into the colony for years past, we altogether question. Had the most careful selection of immigrants been made, instead of Can-Can “ vinedressers, &c.,” quite as many as could be well absorbed would have arrived some time before this. As it is, even allowing that some hundreds, perhaps thousands, have been added to the generally useless floating population, still enough of the really sturdy honest laboring class have been imported to meet existing requirements, and to expend another million and a quarter, or any portion of it, in supplying more at present, would be neither more nor ■ less than cruel waste of money. Wherever employment is open there are now in the colony plenty of people eager to accept it, and reports from all the chief centres of population prove this conclusively. Even presuming that labor is still sufficiently scarce to compel comparatively high wages in some parts, still it must be remembered that the chief public works of the colony embraced in the Public Works scheme, arc vapidly approaching completion, and that within a year or so, a very largo amount of labor will be thrown on the market to he diverted to other channels, which will slowly and with difficulty take it up. In 'the face -of this, then, surely all but nominated immigration, under which the friends of those to be brought out pay a certain proportion of the cost, and, what is more, are actually and morally responsible for their support on arrival, should bo brought to a close, or at least confined within the very narrowest limits. In a-short time, it is true, the shearing season -will afford extra temporary employment to a good many hands. In the autumn the harvest will do the same, but still the supply will amply meet the demand, and the progress of public works ‘be in no way hindered or interfered with thereby. Immigrants now hang long in barracks, female domestic servants only excepted, and the labor market otherwise, if not glutted, is at least amply supplied, A paragraph in another column tells us that very lately at Christchurch, no less than a hundred and eighty-six applications were made for work at the Domain in one day, and that amongst the applicants Were several skilled tradesmen, anxious to obtain employment as ordinary . laborers. A Marlborough contemporary very recently, referring to the expected advent of a shipload of immigrants, wondered what would bo done with them, as they wore not required, and work in that province was already eagerly taken, when obtainable at all, at the very lowest wages that would give a bare maintenance. The same story, varied a little somewhat perhaps, comes from Otago, Auckland, and elsewhere. All this testimony clearly proves .the imperative necessity there is for reducing immigration, and it is to be hoped that Parliament, before sanctioning the proposed loan at all, will decide how it shall be apportioned, clipping remorselessly any portion of it intended for unnecessary immigration. As far as Patea goes, there seems every probability of immigration having ceased, for Captain Wray lias resigned what was a sinecure Commissionership, and there is no local officer of Immigration hero. Of the immigrants who were ever sent here not a third remain in the district, but have sought fresh fields and pastures new. The extravagant and expensive buildings remain empty and disused, monuments of absurd expenditure on objects unnecessary, whilst other public buildings, gaol, hospital, &c., have not been built. It is true that these could be speedily utilised, and it is to be hoped that they will be turned to some good account without delay, for it is very improbable that they will be required for the purposes originally designed, either this year, or in years to come. Altogether immigration here as elsewhere has been overdone of late, so surely Parliament will give the country rest, instead of bringing out people in greater numbers, and at a'-more rapid rate, than employment at fair wages can bo found for.