EMIGRATION EXTRAORDINARY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1566, 22 December 1883, Page 2

EMIGRATION EXTRAORDINARY.

To tiie Editob, Sir,—An article in your issue of the 6th inst., headed'' Emigration Extraordinary." was pointed out to me the othor day. Would you favor me with a space in your correspondence column to enable me to explain this phenomenon, and also to correct the wrong impression your article tends to convey with respect to one or two points. The intending emigrants are not leaving for Columbia, (i.e. British Columbia), but for Oregon State and 'Washington Territory (especially the latter) which form parts of the United States and are situalo between tho Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean on both Bides of tho Columbia river, where it lows out in the Pacific Ocean. The latitude of theso trac's of ouuntry reiohej fromc. 420 lo c. 480 N., and tlieir positions on the globe consequently correspond with that of Siuthern and Middle Prance, and they have a great deal milder winter climate thai this country on account of being shelteri"! from the cold north winds by tho lWky mountains, and at the same tirno time exposed to the genial influence of Ihe Tiwlo Winds from the Pacific. West of the 0 iscade Range, which runs along Ihe coast parallel to the Rocky Mountains, the main tomperature during the winter months arerngos c. ih Fahrenheit, consequently a great dea' above freezing point, and cattlo aro graz iog out all the year round; therefore you convey a wrong impression by speaking of the destination of these settlors as a country ice-bound half ot the year. Even when you speak of British Columbia in that sense, you must confine yourself to the regions which lie east of the mountains and not the coast settlements where the climate i'b very much milder. But supposing that this was the case, I do not think that you can boast very much of your climate here especially in the settlements along tho Napier road, through the Seventy-Mile Bush and at Makeretere. If it is temperate, it is torn perate in its worst form, which smiles one moment and frowns the next, which gives you promise ot a summer one day and surprises you with a winter the next, which entices the younp crop to spring from tho ground one week in order to kill it with an ioy hand the next, At least that is the case in Dannevirk, Norwood, and Makeretu. How can you join " temperate climate" and "fertile soil" with the names of those settlements? Surely you know nothing about them, You cannot know that if it does not blow it rains, if it does not rain it freezes; and that these frosts often occur at at a time when the hoisted genial climate has tried to make its appearance and brought forth a young crop of good promise for these poor confiding settlers—confiding in a'climate the fickleness of which is hanging over these settlements like a Damocles' sword, always ready to assort itself, whenever tho looming ranees are oapped with snow; confiding in a soil the poorness of which has been proved through years of hard toil and by the fact that the land is literally worth less when cleared than with the bush standing; confiding, not only in the Qod of Nature, but in the alluring descriptions of the authorities who placed them there, holding out to them as an inducement to settle in the wilderness grand promises of genial climate, fertile soil, constant work till their land was paid for, and a railway through the settlement (Norsewood). The two first are non est, and a fraud; the " constant work" lasted only till Ihey completed tho only work they were ever meant to do, and for which they were located there—a road through the bush; tho railway—instead of going through their little settlement, and thereby compensating them a little for the poor soil and hilly ground—goes miles away from them, and the fact that another township by the name of Ormondville has sprung up alongside them simultaneously with the railway line, and has the benefit of that lino, is very indicative as to the secret power at work when that promise was ignored. Verily there is a screw loose, not only in' those settlements from reasons mentioned, but in the whole colony, the most debt-ridden among 7 ■ kind of genera! soretv looso in form of an enormous national and private ' debt, small resources, unbearable taxation, expensive civil service and bad times,

When yon add to that the ridioulom high price of land everywhere, which enables only the capitalists to buy and cultivate to advantage, and which is forcing the whole colony slowly but Burely into the hands of a landed aristocracy, when you hear even representatives of this same class compare the country with a rockiest trader on the verge of bankruptcy. When you see such signs of tho times as GOO or 700 unemployed in Ohrutchuroh alone crying out to the Government; 11 stop assisted immigration, give us work, give us bread," how can you blame these people you are anxious to keep and enslave here by inducements, how can you blame them for trying to tear themselves loose from a hopeless future, from burdens they never dreamt would be imposed on them, from disappointments, tho reault of false promises, How can you blame them for trying to reach a country where they have every hope of, bettering themselves by receiving their land as a gift, by having abundance of rioh rsaorvea in timber, soil, minerals, game, fish, and cereals, resources which are so much more valuable on ncoonnt of being on the highway of commerce and near a good market. This movement ii no, suddon impulse—it is the result of long and patient sufferings, They do not start on a blind purposeless journey, but to a place about which they have full and authentic information, where they are expected with open arms, and where their future homesteads arenowparcelled outfor them, where they intend going with a stem unflinching purpose of carving their way, I do not thiukyou need bewail the money expended by the Government on behalf of these rough bushmen. I am told by several of thorn that they had to pay their passage out of their hard earning in this country and for their fertile (sic) soil at the. rate of £\ por sere, And even if some money was expended on them, the benefit .derived from their hard work, and from tHeir"udder as milk cows to the taxgatherer, is compensation enough. They are not slaves but free agents, They caunr here like green children, confiding, willing to work, and easily taken in by fine promises. They leave with thoir oyes wide open, and an experience which, dearly, bought, will be a gold mine to .them in their future.homos. I am &c, Moiie Light.