NEW ZEALAND IMMIGRATION.

Thames Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 1856, 4 July 1874, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND IMMIGRATION.

■■';■. AGENTS INJpfiiin),'',-;.-'-M.JJCB dissalisfactioa'obfams'among the labourers ', in .the.agricultural .and;rnioing; districts, and a Very large number of men. are out on strike.., As., a;GonsequenpOj; therj several agenls of the colonies requiring; labour have been ,very Several: meetings have been held in the : Eastern an■'emigration agent on business in this coiiutry on behalf of the Government of Canterbury, told_his listeners that New Zealand : wa's a .land 1 as.;large as.Englau'd; • Ireland, and Scotland- put together, and* that it was in the hands ;of ;a; : population less by one-hundred thousand than Birmingham boasts. ,; la'.,this land, blessed;, with a beautiful and temperate olimate, the lowest wages-paid; to labourers'were 'eight shillings'a day. j Breaking forth into rhyme, Mr Duncan said that: tho state of the labour market in' New Zealand might be thus described:— ; Eight hours'work, ■ . j Eight hours' play, . . : Eight hours'sleep, and ' j. Eight bob a day. I Men whose strength began to fail by reasou'of age .of, course did not earn-quite; so much, but even men sixty or seventy years of age had their ;; six or. seven shilr, lings a day.. Moreover, in. New Zealand, itiwas a rare ehancefco find old men withj the need of gaining their bread by the sweat ofitheir, br.ow,;for.if, by. the. time he had reached tne'age of lit'ty, an>agrioul« ' tu'ral; labourer; Zealandi.'was nottb,o possessor of from 50 to 200 acres of lahdat was proof positive that he hadinot: beep true, to himself. In this happy land fencing and'harvest work-was- done;-by': contract, and from 83 to 12* an acre was. paid for tying-up -('" It's 3i here,"'said;avoice from the crowd)—and ploughmen get 20s a week and.their keep. These details were accepted by the crowd in perfect good faith, and were greeted with constunt cries of approval. But when Mr Duncan came to describe the condition of living amongst the labouring classes in New-Zealand there were evident signs of scepticism.; Beef and mutton on the tible three'times' a day;,mutton, at from 2\& toiJ apjurid;;beef-,31 to'si; logs of mutton haivkei about the streets at Is each; a whole:sheep for. 2s 61; flour, Is Bd' a stona; potatoes £2 a ton— those seemed statements too wild for belief even by so tru|ting an anlioaoe as this. But New Zialand di'lnot depend solely upon tha attraction of its low prices for beef mutton to. draw emigrants. " We havo got bacoaebs and lords there." R'pt'Mjr'Dnaqw,'" m\\h wp^w'of-

Vlr ttldtlstoue, your late hemier,' is living at Canterbury." 'I ho men did not seem much drawn by the prospect of finding baronets and lords among the natural products of the promised land, but tho mention of Mr Gladstone's nephew proved a genuine Buccess, and the speaker proceeded to add that in New Zealand there .were 'no beggars in the streets and no women in the fields. Young women who went out there were certain to be married within m or eight weeks. _ If they prefenvd independence and a siut;le life thoy would be snapped up to fill situations as domestic servants at wages ranging from £25 to £-10 a year.' Finally, wllilst modestly deprecating the realisation of the prospects of Lord Maoaulay's tfew Zeala'nder, Mr Dune m declared that tho countjry had within itself all the elements that made nations great, and that it was destined at no distant time to become the Britain of the South, imitating the virtues , and sinking tho iniquities of tho mother • ' country. -European Mail.