The Tumeka Leader SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1888. THE EXODUS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1724, 14 April 1888, Page 2

The Tumeka Leader SATURDAY, APRIL 14, 1888. THE EXODUS.

Those who during the past couple of weeks have been trying to make black look white with regard to the number of people who are leaving the colony at present received a rude shock by the publication of the exact figures under Government authority yesterday morning. During the month of March 2437 left the colony, as against 917 who came into it. We have thus lost in one month 1520, and of these 1048 went to Victoria. This is a very serious matter, yet the Conservative papers, taking their cue from the Premier, make very little of it. Let us see exactly now what it means From the initiation of the immigration policy to the end. of 1886 we introduced into this colony 118,153 persons, at a cost of £2,151,831 7a 9d. Thus, calculating roughly, every one of these immigrants cost on an average £2O. K ow, we presume that people will admit that the immigrants were worth £2O each to us. That must be admitted, or else anyone attempting to deny it must be prepared to show that the immigration policy was from the beginning a huge mistake, and we do not think many will undertake such a task as that. The matter, therefore, resolves itself into this: in having lost 1520 persons, who cost us £2O each, we have lost £21,040. That is the true meaning of last month's emigration. "We bought, so to speak, these people at , £21,040, and they are gone now, '. but we must continue to pay ; the interest on the money with : which we originally purchased them. But the £21,040 does not represent all we have lost. Each of them took some money with him, and that, too, is lost. On an average they must have taken £lO a-piece with them, or a total of £15,200, thus bringing our total loss ' up to what would go very near paying interest on a loan of £1,000,000. Now » let it be remembered that this is only • the result of one month's operations, and also that it is not the loafers, nor [ the drunkards, nor the ex-convicts that : are gone, but the real hard-working, honest men, who have saved up enough money to enable them • to pay their passages. Our best i' workmen are undoubtedly leaving us at a very rapid rate, and the riff--5 raff, and the feeble, and the aged, and ■ the infirm, and the useless are staying at home. We find in this one consolation. The effect of it will be felt \ heaviest by the very men yho have \ been the cause of it—the propertied I classes —for when the best men have i left the colony they will then have ■ only the riff-raff to do their work for ' them. According to the present 1 aspect of things, every man who has ' the means will leave, and then those \ who aimed at screwing down wages I will find they will have to give good ' wages to inferior workmen —and serve ) them right. I The Southland News, a paper pub- [ lished on the spot, says:—"By the ! last seven steamers to Melbourne no I less than one thousand four hundred > and forty-five passengers left the > Bluff, and it is but too evident that ' there has been no exaggeration as 1 regards the main facts. People are 1 leaving literally in shoals." , Where they are going is not difficult l to ascertain. The following is a table ■ showing the arrivals from New Zealand in Melbourne:— Saloon, Steerage. Feb. 18—Mararoa ... 8.1 115 Feb. 25—Wairarapa ... 49 122 March 21—Tarawera ... 69 115 March 9-Ta Anau ... 61 80 March 16—Kotomahaua 120 179 March 23—Waihora ... 50 133 April 2—Manapouri ... 110 J7O Or a total of 1445, made up of 540 saloon and 905 ateerage passengers. This has been supplied to the Lyttelton Times by' its own correspondent, and shows that during the last six weeks, from Feb. 18 to April 2, New Zealand steerage passengers have landed in Melbourne from the Bluff at the rate ol 150 per week. Yet this is hot all, for this only includes vessels which take their departure from the Bluff, and as there are other steamers leaving Wellington and Auckland every week we may lawfully conclude that they take at the rate of another 50 per week* Putting it at the lowest calculation, therefore, we must be losing our population at the rate of about 200 a week, and if the tide continues for 12 months as it has continued for the last two months our total loss will be about 10,000 persons. If the calculation we have made is correct, and we cannot see how it can be wrong, this means an enormous loss to the colony. We feel confident we shall lose half a million of money, for although we placed the average sum each emigrant takes away with him at £lO, there can be no doubt but many will take hundreds of pounds with them. This will go to impoverish the colony and intensify misery. The question is, therefore, serious, and those who pooh-pooh it now, and are striving to make black look white will awaken to its realities before they are many months older* . •r* 1 ■, ■■■hill ! '