"PARADISE OVER THE SEAS."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8097, 30 April 1906, Page 2

"PARADISE OVER THE SEAS."

ADVERTISING THE COLONY. Whatever may have been the truth of the report that was cabled from London some two months or more ago to the effect that New Zealand was negotiating to bring one thousand navvies to the colony, it soems that we at least lost nothing by it. Most of the London papers made pome laudatory, and in somo cases somewhat overdrawn references to the colony in connection with the matter, and the following article from the " Dispatch" of February. 17th, may be taken as a sample of the free advertisements given:— One thousand navvies aro required by the New Zealand Government for the construction of a new railway iu the North Island. There is a great scarcity of manual labor in the Colony, and the Colonial. Government has asked the High Commissioner j n England to obtain recruits in the Old Country; It is stated that the work will last for three years, and if at the end of thai tim e the mon aro desirous of settling in the country, further openings will be found for thoin. During tl(c last four m ontUs the rate of pay for this work has averaged 8s lOd per day, and this % a country where the cost of living is no moro than in England. The steerage fare to New Zealand is about £l7, but men of good character and ability will receive £7 towards the fare by the High Commissioner. Already the West Ham Distress Oonimittoo has selected twenty-five men for this work, andtho secrotary has applied to the Central Unemployed Committee asking for a grant from the Queen's Fund to enable these men to emigrate. The men aro recjuirad at onoe, and special atwngamonts are in contemplation to enable them to take out their wives and children.

From the above it.will be soon there is amplo scopo in Now Zealand for all who are willing to work, and our Home Government miillit do worse than provide some measure of Stateaided emigration for suitable candidates who have fallen on evil times in England,

A correspondent has just received a letter from an old school chum who set sail last November with his wife, parents, brothers, and sisters for this enterprising Colony. Ho writes: " After landing at Wellington I was busy for the (irst three days looking after luggage and cargo, while the others were looking out for employment. My brother Will, who is twenty years of ago, got a place the first day lie landed, at his trade—making shop fitments—at lis a dayf My eldest sister, who is a nurse, got a post the same week at £SO per annum and all found, while my two other sisters were just going out on the Thursday as I left for up-country at 10s a week and board to help with children. " Everyone works here, for Jack is as good as his master. Tho helps, or what you would call servants, all ride their bicyoh.s, and look as good as anybody elso would out. The farm hborer keeps his own hack, and not a few who make a special study of horsos run in all the chief paces of the year. It is truly i called the workers' paradise. "Now, before I make a claim for a block of land, I want to obtain a year or two's experience of farm life. With this object in view I have gone up country, leaving my mother and wife behind.

" Each ' swagman' carries his own blanket. However, I was able to obtain a bedroom to myself through the kindness of the sub-managcr. But even a straw mattress is a treat after a day's work in the open. My first task was hoeing mangels, the rows of which seemed to make an imprint upon my mind by their persistent regularity. I was very glad to retire to the shado of a tree at midday for a meal of cold meat, bread and butter, cake, and jam. "But I was supremely happy, f thought of a City restaurant anil its pale customers, oppressed with thn close London atmosphere, eating dubious dainties without an appetite. "I have now seen .a good many labourers and bushmen in the lowor ranks of labour, but have nowhere met with such gross viciousness as is to be hund in our English industrial centres. Neither is there any poverty, with its attendant .slums.

" Every man and woman has a voto, and each one is assured that after a life of honorable toil, he may with a lillle saving, secure a comfortable competency for old age by the aid of a Government that is the servant of the people. It is by no moans difficult to save considerable sums; at loast, sufficient to buy a bouso and a little land. The lowest paid labor is farm work, which averages 25s a week, with board and lodgings. Labour in towns is paid from Is per hour upwards. None is allowed to work more than 48 hours per week, with compulsory half-holiday," '