AMERICA AND ASSISTED IMMIGRATION to NEW ZEALAND.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 228, 13 June 1872, Page 5

AMERICA AND ASSISTED IMMIGRATION to NEW ZEALAND.

The Dundee Advertiser, in an article which has reference to the bids being made for emigrants by s»me of the American States and New Zealand, mentions the astonishing efforts that are being made to keep the stream directed to the States.. An American company has been formed to build steamers to run between Liverpool and New York at the rate of 20 miles an hour. The new company is said to have commenced operations with a capital of 12,000,000 dollars, and will have the mail subsidy from the American Government. The dimensions of each vessel are to be as follows : — Length, 525 feet ; breadth, 66 feet ; draught of water, 14 feet ; and tonnage, 8000 tons. They will each carry 1000 first class and 1600 steerage passengers. But the Advertiser endeavors to show intending emigrants that New Zealand is now offering better inducements than America. The assisted passages the Agent-General for the Colony offers, says that paper, cannot be otherwise than alluring baits to intending emigrants ; and it is well known that the national preference of that portion of our countrymen is to settle either in New Zealand or Australia, if they can only arrive there at no greater expenditure than is required to convey them to America. They seem to regard our southern colonies as their more natural homes than the States of America Besides the climate of our colonies is on the whole much more favoable and less snbject to extremes of heat and cold. The wages paid to farmservants, shepherds, navvies, country mechanics, and female domestic servants are from 15 to 20 per cent higher than what are paid to the same classes in America or Canada ; and as several millions of pounds sterling are to be expended on public works, such as railways, roads, bridges, harbours, &c, there is every probability that the present high rates will be maintained. The cost of living is exceedingly moderate. A New Zealand farmer, resident near Christchurch, and who left Dundee in 1869, states that the provisions there are remarkably cheap. Good butter can be had for 4d, good colonial cheese 3d, and the best beef 2£d per lb. " These are prices," he truly observes, " which ought to tempt the working population of Scotland to New Zealand as their future home." We, cannot, therefore see the wisdom of going on adding to the already superabundant number of steamers which ply between A merica and this country. Undoubtedly America, from its great extent, jts partially inhabited condition, and the small price set upon its rich and fertile soil, presents a wide field of f ruitfulness to the enterprising agriculturist^ and latterly to all classes of tradesmen. But unless the fares of our American liners be reduced considerably, under those io our southern colonies, we suspect that the latter, with their additional attractions, will have the best of it.