THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1880.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3592, 1 July 1880, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi THURSDAY, JULY 1, 1880.

Tjpe Daily Telegraph thus speaks of New Zealand: —" It ja to be hoped that there is some exaggeration in the painful stories which hare been current recently with reference to the prospects of emigrants to New Zealand. According to' letters extracts from which are going the round of the provincial press, certain persons who hare proceeded to the colony find themselves in a sorry, plight. They say they are willing to work, out there is no work to be had, and that they are compelled to wander about, hungry and homeless, in all the misery of compulsory vagrancy. Tn spite of the small demand for labour, it is further aaid fresh batches of emigrants are.constantly pouring in—and of course the disappointed men blame the emigration agents for misleading them. We mast say we think it strange that able-bodied men in a new colony cannot find work if they are willing to take it, and it is worth noting that statements have been made to the effect that the disappointed emigrant is usually a person who consider that because he has gone to the Antipodes he has a right to double wages. Unless he gets double wages he

has a wonderful knack of finding that there j8 no work for him, aud that the emigration agents at home have deceived him. At the same time it would be well if the Governments, Colonial and Imperial, paid more attention to the regulation of emigration, and at convenient times published official statements as to the actual condition of the labour market in distant colonies to which emigrants are invited." It is evident that the Daily Telegraph is slightly misinformed as to real facts. There is, however, much truth in what it publishes, but it is to a certain extent exaggerated, as although the business of the Colony is in a very depressed condition, emigrants have not yet come to compulsory vagrancy, except when they have brought it on themselves by dissipated and reckless living. Unfortunately there are so many laisy and indolent ablebodied men come to New Zealand—under the notion that they can live without work—that when they find their mistake oat they blame the colony instead of their own culpable negligence. This class has become so numerous of late that employers of labour eye with suspicion many "new-chums," and having had experience in their general conduct are averse to employing them. Again a number—indeed the vast majority of emigrants are totally unsuited to the requirements of the colony. If a youthful Lothario is in disgrace with his friends at home they agree "to send him to the Colonies where he^ will soon become a better man and where the temptations to do wrong are not so great." This is the great mistake in many cases. The young man with no fixed trade or calling, and who has never earned a penny in hisjife^-** shipped off to New Zealaj^-peffiaps with a £100 or so. arrives he finds more opportunities for indulging in dissolute habits than at home, and he squanders all his money in muslin and drink. When asked " what he is going to do?" he recklessly replies " I don't know, I suppose something will turn up." So he goes on, like the immortal Micawber, waiting for something to turn up, until his money is spent, he is reduced to beggary and wickedly charges the Colony with his unsuccess. He writes home, and in order to screen his own extravagance leads his friends to suppose the colony is in an almost povertystricken condition. This, however, is not the case, and there is always food and lodging for all those who really work, and do not loaf about the corners of public houses with a crowd of vagabonds as worthless and useless as themselves.