IMMIGRATION.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1167, 14 April 1874, Page 2

IMMIGRATION.

The writer of "Passiug Notes" iu tlio Otago Witness drops lightly on to Dr Eeatherstone, thus :—lnstead of welcoming each new immigrant ship with delight as bringing at least new

shoulders to bear the burden of taxation, we are becoming accustomed now to ask " Any sickness on board ?" with tremulous accents. Will this prove the last drop in the brimming cup of the Agent-General's misdeeds ? To starve our emigration stream until goaded into action, and then to pour scarlatina, diarrhoea, and all uncleanness into our midst in a sort of grim revenge, would be enough to arouse a long-suffering people, I should say. And we arc not—emphatically not—a long-suffering people. Before condemning the Agent-General, however, we must hear what he has to say. Possibly ho may exonerate himself, and throw the upon the Imperial emigration oflieer. Even then supposing it was not his business strictly to make sure of the undiscascd state of the voyagers, public opinion here will not spare him. He ought to have made it his business if he didn't. He is at home chiefly, if not solely, to see that a continuous stream of sound, hale, healthy emigrants set sail for New Zealand, and if he dosn't do it the best thing would be to got some one who can. I, for one, preferred Dr Fcatherstone, in his role of King

Log, and could wish he had not suddenly uudertaken to play King Stork. The "topic of emigrationi will not get itself burked next session of the Assembly as it did last. Scimitar, Carnatic, and Mongol, are words not to be idly forgotteu. By the way, ought not the Commission reports to bo published ?