The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1885.

Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5231, 23 October 1885, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1885.

The Government has determined to re* introduce a system of assisted immigration, and with the wisdom of such a determination we are inclined to differ. If immigration were absolutely necessary there is no doubt that those whom the Government have decided to induce the arrival of, are #f the class desired, but we question very much the consistency of encouraging at the public expense the introduction to the colony of persons well able to pay their own passages to it. The Government has decided that it is advantageous to the colony to give every aid it can to draw farmers and others—likely to take up the lands of the colony, and who are possessed of small capital—to its shores. This is very laudable, and no one can possibly object to it, but the manner of doing the thing seems to us objectionable. At the present time ready money is a great consideration in the colony, and for the want of it many very useful and necessary works which are not only* requisite for the development of the resources of the colony, but are of reproductive character, have had to be put aside, and the chances are that if they were to be commenced, a large influx of population would be attracted here without the assisted immigration which it is proposed to resume. If the Government deem it necessary to encour* age the settlement of farmers with small capital on the land, a much better scheme would be to facilitate in every way settlement and acquisition of the waste acres of the colony without going to any outlay to bring capitalists here by paying their passages. A much greater attraction would be the inauguration of a system of cheap laud to be bad on progressive payments, which might be regulated so that they would not fall heavily on the farmer during the first few years of occupation, while he was getting his land in order for ensuring a return from it. If the proposed new arrival is possessed of even a small amount of capital it would be of much more moment to him to ensure the future success of bin venture than to merely pay his passage to the country, and then allow him to " shift for himself." It certainly is wise to offer some inducements to intending farmers, but those inducements should tend in a more substantial direction than that proposed. If liberal land regulations were introduced they would have much more effect than assisted immigration, in the settlement of the waste acres of the colony.