The Daily News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23. ASSISTED IMMIGRATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 25, 23 February 1909, Page 2

The Daily News TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23. ASSISTED IMMIGRATION.

Although there has been a distinct fall, ing off lately in the number of oversea persons who are arriving in the country, 'our population is still being considerably augmented. There are many opinions about the wisdom of increasing our population from without by the attraction of people of good physique, who (unlike a large number oi the native born) will

nut refuse to become parents. The question of maintaining a virile population is une of very vast importance. New Zealand is particularly generous to people from oversea, and'its generosity always extends in larger proportion to the people who don't need it than to the people who do. For instance, in the matter of assisted passages " immi-

grants " arc allowed to possess capital to the extent of £lOllO ! It is very nice, of course, to permit people with a reasonable amount of wealth to come to this country, but the idea of assisting the possessor of .tlOuU by knocking off a portion of his passage money seems very like giving a millionaire threepence to keep him from starving.

It is regrettable that a very large proportion of immigrants, who are not well circumstanced come to New Zealand, and do not, as is intended by the Immigration Act, go to the country. .Many who falsely represent themselves to have been occupied in rustic pursuits in the Old Country go to the country, anil, without the requisite grit to make their way, drift back to towns, where the enormous rents asked for houses soon reduce them to poverty. It is unfortunately true that a large number of applicants for relief to the various organisations existing in thLs behalf in New Zealand are people who have come from the Old Country and who have no compunction as a general thing in becoming habitual paupers. The fact that the antecedents uf immigrants arc never looked into at all is perhaps one of the reasons why so many oversea people become charges on the ratepayers after a short residence. A large proportion of

the people who are charged before the Courts with offences against the law, more or less serious, have been but a short time in the country. Indeed, it is a recognised thing, both in liritnin and elsewhere, to get rid of people who are a nuisance. It frequently happens I in this country that a .Magistrate will I remit punishment of a small offender if he promises to "go up country.'' The inference generally seems to he that if a person is worthless in a town he must naturally be valuable in the country. The reverse is true, for the country is always calling for men of the best grit, morals and intellect, for oh the backcountry the future of New Zealand depends.

No one having any adequate regard for New Zealand's needs would hold that this country should be a closed preserve for the people already here, but it seems that a great deal more care should be taken in the selection of the people who (ire allowed to make New Zealand their home. Jf a man has a fair income he should certainly not be allowed to conic to New Zealand cheaply. We want him, of course, and if he wants us he cam afford to pay for the privilege. There is not a large proportion of the sturdy English rustic among the immigrants who arrive and allege that they are "farm laborers" or "fanners." It has been pointed out that agencies at Home actually "run farm colonies" where town folks desiring to come to New Zealand are taught the arts of making the colonies blossom like the rose in a fortnight! Nothing could be more absurd than this.

As an indication of the aptitude of some of these trained farm labourers, the story of a fanner who recently called on a friend of ours is interesting. He was asked for work by a recent arrival, l'he new chum was attired in riding kit and said he had been " trained" on a '•farm colony" in Sussex. He was given a job to break up land with a double furrow plough. He was told to harness up his horses and hitch them to the plough, but after half an hour, during which he made no exit from the stable, the farmer went along to see what had happened. The new chum was holding a pair of winkers in front of one of the plough horses, and explained that the horse wouldn't put his head in them! lie was detached from the business of driving horses, and set to bore post holes with a brace and bit. The farmer hitched up uhe horses in the meantime. The new chum, with all the Sussex farm experience, came back from the fence in ten minutes, and explained that '• the borer wouldn't make a hole." The farmer took the brace and bit, and quickly bored a hole in one of the stable fails, finding the bit all right. He gave the brace back to the new chum and asked him to demonstrate. The newchum turned the wrong way! Naturally enough such men are no earthly use to a farmer, who hasn't time to teach his hands the processes of labouring, and generally such men either drift back to towns and become a nuisance or return to Britain and tell fearful lies to the first newspaper -reporter they meet relative to the horrors of life in New Zealand.

Over three hundred assisted immigrants arrived by the Athenic on Sunday, but not a single one will be asked by the Labour Department to demonstrate liis litness to remain in the country. The whole of them may be good citizens, but we can't tell, and it is certain that no one at the other end of the world tried to find out before they were permitted to embark. Everybody knows, of course, that New Zealand was "made" by sturdy independent people from the Old Country, who did not necessarily follow the occupations in the Old Land they subsequently followed here, but the facts remain that among the people who nowadays come to New Zealand a proportion are not attracted by 'Xlw prospects of having to '" buck in" and do some pioneering, but by the allcga-

tion that New Zealand is "the working man's paradise." Th<, general idea of a working man's paradise is that of, a place where there is no need to work hard, and it cannot be too strongly impressed on those who emigrate that in Australasia workers who are worth their salt have l 0 toil a great deal toiler than do the workers of the Old Land. This is especially so in the country, and a much larger output for tlie day is required. The idea that New Zealand is a land of large wages and little work should be fought by the representatives of the New Zealand Government at Home, and certainly the Immigration Acts shuuld be amended to exclude the person with enough capital to pay his own passage from the charitable clauses of the Act.