New Zealanders in California.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3210, 21 May 1889, Page 2

New Zealanders in California.

Wish They Were BackA Wellington citizen (Mr Taylor), who has recently returned from California, gives a doleful account of that place to' a reporter of the Auokland Star who interviewed him, Mr Taylor went .to California to see whether he could do any business in the lumber trade, and he has returned disappointed. He found that it was not possible to do more than little or i nothing, owing to the far-reaching j influence of syndicates and trusts.' Moreover, he says, there was very little doing. He saw two hundred New Zealanders, who had emigrated from this oolony because of the hard times, and every man of them wished himself safely back in this colony. Unfortunately,'.their luck had; been so bad that few of the number could obtain the wherewithal by which to pay their passages. 7 Two young fellows who held farms and sold them to ttf their, fortune in America, also came towi by. the,. Mandia,. only too

pleased to be once more in New Zealand.:: A Canterbury gentleman who had been .vainly endeavoring to oourt tbe Godess of Fortune for nine yearsj line returned to his Southern home. In Los Angelos, Mr Taylor says, there were four thousand unemployed people walking about the streets, and the Salvation Army-were' doing.a most .necessary relief work' there. The Army bid large tents : erected, and were receiving donations and dispensing aid as far as possible. They provided beds, for, three or four hundred .people every night, and gave them some food also. 'One New Zealanderj who left this colony with L 6000,' had . tried his. luck in New York, 'Chicago, and 1 Los Angelos, is now'strande'd at the last .named place without a cent. / . Mr Taylor came across seven paintters who'-went from ftew Zealand during last year, and not one of whom hadbeen able to-find work, In San Francisco, he says, men were,walking about idle in thousands, He sa\y more poverty there than he had ever seen in New Zealand, and met fully 200 New Zealanders who wislied themselves,back home,- A Wellington man. who gave rip a biUetYwrth £2OO a year to go to America', was found walking' about in a destitute condition, and another young man, very well - connected' in'this colony, was living on charity., Mr Taylor says that almost the whole of the. passengers by the Zealandia aro^New Zealanders, who have been disap- , pointed, and that those who remain ; across the water rfre cursing the day when they left these shores. , The working hours in Amerioa i are ten hours per day," and Sunday is no day of rest. v ln Los' Angelos there is no Sunday observance. During Mr Taylor's' staj there, there i was, he, says scarcely a day in which > a suicide was uot recorded, He , advises New Zealand workmen, and especially carpenters and painters, to remain whore they are. Softi goods men are also wise to remain j here, for many of. their fellows who , went to America with saloon tickets J would now'be only too glad to scrape j up enough money for a steerage return. Germans and Chinese (Mr Taylor says) seem to do a great dealof the work, and the Europeans have > a very bad time generally.