IMMIGRANT’S LOT.

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1922, Page 5

IMMIGRANT’S LOT.

THE RIGHT KIND OF SETTLER. CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. London, July 7. Provincial newspapers continue to publish numerous letters concerning the immigrant’s lot in New Zealand, and, if the correspondents can be believed, that lot is not always a happy one. Mr. A. C. Faddy, writing from Palmerston North to the Rugby Advertiser, says: “The unemployment question and the New Zealanders’ resentment of new arrivals are present-day factors. The stranded conditions of many English people here, the futile hunt for employment, the high cost of living, the excessive rents asked, the standard of morality exercised, the bitter sectarian feeling expressed, the universal attempt of employers to force down wages, the ‘ai(T rendered employers by immigration. are all factors to be considered by Englishmen before seeking life in the colonies—New Zealand included.” Nevertheless, the writer maintains that “New Zealand is a grand country. It is a young country, and it needs population of the right sort.” A special correspondent of the Glasgow Evening Times contributes a column article, in which he deals very fairly with the present-day difficulties of the Dominion. “The tradesman,* he says, “who leaves the Old Country in the belief that in coming to New Zealand he is entering Elysium will, in all likelihood. be doomed to disappointment. During the past year I have been over the greater part of the Dominion, and have spoken to all sorts and conditions of men, and have"found many deeply regretting that they ever gave credence to the fairy tales told them of the beauty and plenty and freedom of ‘God’s Own Country,’ as the New Zealander delights to call his land. A laborer can usually find a job, hut a tradesman has to be content with what he can pick up. Thia is not an industrial country, but an agricultural. The need is not for engineers. but ploughmen; not for managers, but for men who can wield the pick and the shovel. The patternmaker who is not willing to wheel a barrow, the grocer who is not willing to drive a dray, the clerk who cares not for a butter factory or a freezing works—in short, the man who will not turn his hand to anything. had better stay at home. These things detract not from the excellency of the climate—its beauty, its fertility, its geniality, its clear blue skies, its freedom; but one cannot live on beautv and fresh air alone. Intending immigrants should remember that and not be deluded by the glowing accounts of enthusiastic friends. Whatever New Zealand was a dozen years ago. it is not to-day a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Probably considerable good will result from the article published by The Times this week, and written bv that journal’s. Wellington correspondent:— “If the immigration is to Be successful.” he says, “the immigrants must be both satisfactory and satisfied. A few discontented immigrants, writing complaining letters Home, will soon give the country a bad name; and a. few misfits amongst us will quicklv bring all newcomers into disfavor. That is why Now Zealand finds it necessary to state whom she will assist and whom she will welcome.” For the rest, his article is a well-reasoned statement of the conditions as they are.