The Westport Times. AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY. OCTOBER 12, 1871.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 873, 12 October 1871, Page 2

The Westport Times. AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. In the cause of Truth and Justice we strive. THURSDAY. OCTOBER 12, 1871.

Amongst the papers relating to the introduction of Scandinavian immigrants, is a letter to the Colonial Secretary, from Mr Halcombe, the late Provincial Secretary at Wellington, containing some interesting particulars as to the manner in which the immigrants should be dealt with, and the probable results of their labours. He describes them as used to hard work and still harder fare, sober and industrious, and easily contented. When we learn that these were delighted with the prospect of being located at the Manawatu, and were satisfied with such daily rations, during their stay in Wellington, as could be supplied at the very moderate rate of each adult, it must be conceded that they possess the majority of these qualifications.

Mr Halcombe estimates the total indebtedness of each immigrant couple to tho Government, when landed at the Manawatu, with four months' supplies, to be £2B, made up as follows : Contribution to passage money, £l4; expenses in Wellington and transport to £4 ; four months' stores, £lO. Assuming these immigrants to be " handy workmen, industrious, economical, and sober, the result of their first year's work, should be to clear them of debt to the Government, and to place them in possession of a ten-acre freehold with a sufficiency of wheat and potatoes grown on their land to supply them for the following twelve months. Should they be in anything like constant employment, they can earn, with five days' work, 2osa week, or £65 a year; by contract work, in long hours, they could do much more. Deducting £2B for the liquidation of the Government debt, and estimating their expenditure foi 4 food and clothing at £2.5 more, there would be a balance of £l2 for the purchase of their ten-acre lot, which, with its improvements, should be worth £2O at least." And this result, he adds, which is gathered from their remarks, "is beyond their most sanguine expectations."

The value at which Mr Halcombe estimates the labour of these immigrants presents, to our thinkiug, a melancholy picture of the condition of certain portions of this colony. Not less striking is his ■calculation of the annual cost of On referring to the list of the names, ages, and occupations of -the "immigrantsy we find, >tbat <it comprises eighteen adult males, and thirty-five women and children, or a total of fifty-three souls. This gives very nearly an average of three persons

to be supported by the earnings of each tnale adult, and, according to the estimate of expenditure for food and clothing, the sum of £8 10s per head would'be'annuallytov&ilablefor that purpose Yet, it is by the introduction of immigrants whose labour is thus miserably remunerated that tbo colony is to be relieved from its excessive in dividual taxation. Elsewhere, wo give the total expenditure by the General and Provincial Governments for 1870, and this divided among the entire European population gives an annual expenditure of a little more than £ll per head, which represents a larger sum than the estimated annual cost of maintenance per head of the- Scandinavian immigrants.