IMMIGRANTS.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9410, 2 April 1909, Page 6

IMMIGRANTS.

Mr S. Kidman, the Australian (“cattle king,” who has been on an extended toor of Europe, returned last week to South Australia bj the R.M.S, Asturias. He made some remarks concerning the vast sources In the 'old world from which immigrants could be drawn. “In London 1 went about a good deal.” Mr Kidman said, “and viewed the metropolis from the tops of omnibuses and saw in the crowded streets many thousands of people who would be only too glad to come to Australia. I learned of their condition. Some astonished me. Just fancy a man with a wife and family earning 12s 6d a week. I brought out .several omnibuses drivers with me, and many of them work IS hoars a day, all for ss. They are all good horsemen and will prove useful on my station. I am bringing out about 25 of these men, as well as some fine thoroughbred stallions and Welsh ponies. England has a marvellous surplus population to get rid of, but 1 think, if anything, it is just as bad in Germany, Beligum, Holland, Denmark, and nearly every other country all over Europe. The working classes are as thick as antsf In Germany this was very marked. Somebody said there were not sufficient German farmers there. That is not true; they are tumbling over each other and working for miserably low wages. To me it Is wonderful to think tbat these men are contented to live and work under snob conditions, keeping their families in a state of semi-starvation. In London it is the same. .Some cf them spoke to me of their condition end I ana convinced that we could get thousands of men and women to come out here if some little persuasion Was indulged in. What seems to worry thpm is the thought that they might oome out here and find themselves in the position of having no work to go to. You can’t getaway from that fact. That Is the chief hindrance which lies in the way of immigration to Australia. They long to get out of their overcrowded, underpaid spheres and start afresh in Australia, but they are faced with the fear of dearth of employment. If some of the big pastoralists, squatters, and others gave an-assurance tbat if they came one they would provide them with work, thousands of immigrants would come out here.’’