UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRANTS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1718, 27 February 1895, Page 2

UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRANTS .

Tnn Hon W. P. Reeves has had a gregit deal said against, "but very“ little -in favor of, his Undesirable Act, as introduced,by him in- tM-‘ session just over. In the;last number of tho Review of Reviews 'which is just to hand appears: a'feply by him to the numerous crilicisims of his measure, from which vfe : (mil the ‘•lf it be said:that drasti||iihmigration laws are needed by the] United States because -Chinese;: '/Criminals, continental. 1 - Europeant?,-labourers, contract workmen, . ‘"and persons suffering from dangerous diseasekltesort to America, and are not desirable recruits for the States, I would reply that such persons come to these colonies, and are no more to he thought desirable additions in a new country in this hemisphere than in a new country in tho other. Nowadays the American Immigration Laws shut put not only lunatics, criminals, polygamists, and all persons suffering from loathsome and contagious diseases, hut almost all Chinese, all paupers, and all persona who are likely ,to become a public charge. Indeed, a recent American Statute enacts that any assisted immigrant-, or any person whose passage ticket is paid for with the money of another, must, before being allowed to land, submit to a special enquiry, and satisfactorily show that he or she does not belong to the excluded classes. Nor let it be imagined that this severe and sweeping law is. ar mere brutum fnlmen. It ia made very real by unceasing vigilance' on both sijles of tfie • Atlantic, If unsuitable passengers; elude the examiners in; Europe, it is 'on! j t 6 find -that they have again to ruu, the gauntlet at New York.” On the question of excluding persons suffering from consumption, the writer say s: “ The Bill, agaih has been denounced, as inhuman because it proposes to close our gases to suchj uhfortfinate sufferers from may come to our shores, meaningYo rottle there. I-can only say that this feature in tho Act is there simply because medical experts, men of undoubted humanity and goodness of heart, have urged its necessity. Tuberculosis,-that fell disease which threatens to extipafe the Maori race, which is . responsibly fori more drunkeness and insanity amongst whites than unobservant* people would readily believe, is threatening to become a national malady in New Zealand. For this, the practice of English doctors in shipping off incurable as well as curable patients to the antipodes is largely responsible. It is the opinion of these who know much more about the matter than I can .pretend to do, that New Zealand ought to protect itself against this silent’but constant invader.”