The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1883. THE IMMIGRATION POLICY.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1184, 11 December 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1883. THE IMMIGRATION POLICY.

Wb have frequently pointed out the absurdity of the policy of the present Government in persisting to pour immigrants into this colony. There is at present a great commercial depression, everything is at a standstill, hundreds of men are out of employment, the cry of the unemployed is heard from end to end of the land, and the Government has had to set men working on the Otago Central Railway by day labor to keep them from starving. It is evidently not the desire of the Government to make this railway by day labor. As soon as Mr Mitchelson got the reins of Government into bis own hands be immediately ordered the dismissal of all these men, and the-stoppage of the work with the view of letting it by contract. No sooner was this done than a public meeting was held in Dunedin to urge upon the minister the desirability of carrying on the construction of the line by day labor, as hitherto, in order to give employment to the men, and of course he had to yield. It was evidently not his wish, and it certainly cannot be right, that a work of such magnitude as the construction of the Otago Central Railway should be carried out by day labor. Such a work ought to be let by contract to the lowest tenderer, and it is manifestly wrong to carry it on in any other way. But the fact that hundreds of men were bn the point of starvation rendered the day labor course imperative. Things are no better in Christchurch. It was only last week that a deputation of working men waited upon the Mayor of Christchurch, and told him plump and plain that unless work was got for the unemployed the men would have to resort to plunder to keep themselves from starving. It is certainly very distressing to hear such language as this in the middle of the shearing season, and it ought, we think, make the Government pause before spending any more money on immigration. It is quite evident that the supply of labor is at present in excess of the demand, and that to bring any more men into this colony means that others mast leav or starve. What the Government menus, in the face of these facts, in bringing shipload after shipload of immigrants into this colony is difficult to und r~ sjand. Perhaps the idea is to lower wages, but we doubt if that can be done without doing more harm than good. If wages get any lower, and work becomes any more difficult to obtain, it will result in the old hands clearing out as they did in 1880. In that year men who had been in the colony for years, and made some little money, left it altogether, and farmers and others have been complaining ever since that the workmen left behind were not so good as the old hands, Whet led to I

these men leaving was this—Parliament voted to the Government £79,000 to spend on works which would give employment to the unemployed. Instead of spending this Government it in the coffers of the Treasury, and the best men had to leave the colony in consequence of getting nothing to do. The Government saved £79,000 and made a great deal of noise about their prudence and thrift, but the colony lost a large number of excellent men, many of whom had money, and might in a few years have taken up land, and settled on it. The result of the present immigration will be somewhat similar. If the labor market is overcrowded ;with new chums, the men who have saved something will seek fresh fields and pastures , now. It is evident, therefore, that to encourage further immigration is not only unwise but mischievous, and we trust the Government will see its way to end it for the present.