VICTORIAN EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND

Waikato Times, Volume VIII, Issue 438, 9 March 1875, Page 2

VICTORIAN EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND

~ , We presume that the r conclusion * arrived at by tle parsons -who fifvve asgpii^hG TsGvr, J3Wan(| Gpv 31m ment whether it will, make arrangements to receive and pixmrteVTSr^Ve* thousand "VicboHa'n t^igg^rs is that tl^e^toijyjs.over-peppleil, and that, .therefore, the time h*ns arrived when 'its surplus 'population must swarm 1 off.' Such a fact — if it were a faob — wouU b#,aseri:>us,on£ to face. As it is, however, tie movement whia'i has baen m ule $t : Ballarat is vicKipulKufjU&nd' ei&x more reprehensible tfyan^ridiculou^. , It \s a confession, not of national decline-, not of cU'ninisliing i'Psou;rces'aiTd failing industries, ; but of individual sbijf-tlessne.ss and ' feeblemindedness. Our land laws may < ibs faulty,", tiscia! system- a miserable mistake-,' and our Hdn>injs-; tratton of public very fir from- what- it ought to-be^ h\\\i these, evils- neither eVcuse'nor justify that want of energy and of adaptability to ctrcji^sWnc'e^r which is exhibited by the men who hang about the* chief centres ofrpopjilation.'am? coihuraii^fttt want of employment while studiously refrain TjH^wmxlfe end*avour to seek it in those parts of the cpfvntry' where it nri»ht be readily foui^.\ f of, t]ifs stamp arp always reidy to lay tfte blitns of theii' impoverishod conlition upon anyWly bit, "themselves. They are always to he fotiml swe!li:i£ the 1 list of th.c political and. social malcontents. They' h-iye astandino; gri^vanef* against the institutions oorf r t^e" colony, and they cherish an rnveter.ito grudge against sefi^^'lass or soni^ law, either, of mm or- of nature, .irhicii.thW imagine i« perpr'tuilly op % niUng' ( to, pyeveW^em'^fFOinachioving- prosper.it v a.t a gle bound. If a U'ush \%tkes pi ice to Northern Queensland, dACpV^ria, 'pr New Zealand, or Bi'itiah Colujnbia, qx, Eolith Aft'ica^ these .restless spirits a»e sure to take part ia it ; and when they find their wav b' t ick'to this col on v, disippjinted and dispirited, they growl at the parsimony of the Yicto- ' rian Government, beciuse it did not charter a ship j tor tlHr conveyance to these shores, or undertake i to defraytlWr return pussiges to the land they are ■ always abusing.; j The egregious and perverse wronq -headed ness of 1 such ma! contents, is encouraged an^i stimulated hy ' loctl «tu mo-orators and popukrity^hnn-ti'jgnjembei^ I df"the > Legislative'Assemb!y, who- have neither the > nrmliness nor the capacity to tell the whole of the ! Mica J wi»ei«:thaji Ktl ]l,U^r 4 iJleiies3 is their bane, and J t.heir poverty their reproach j nor to point out to thenTTliaT^Tiirrrcountr^ like this, no man with, a stout inii'-bf-armsr and an' honest detferuiiuation to succeed need fear want, or despair of raising himselr* a to«a coidrfciori.of.cbmp3tence.l Xi^fact, wheniwe, compare Victoria^ with sanije European countri^ai which are note equal to this [colony in point? of fiuil,' climate;'" a ml- n;«hiral"'ad vantages* the -.coatrafltjjs realty" disgraceful to'oiirs^lvt*^ and to th<>s3-; classes! more espaci.illy wlio^ire asking the Government ofl another colony to assist them to emigrate. Take the little kingdom of Belgium, for example, .with an area only one-sevelilh- that of Victoria, and. two-thirds of its soil naturally ill-adapted far ■ either a.gricultuj'alprgr.^zmg.piu^po3esj and yet the last census shows that it supports/ a population"* of 5,113,630, orupwards-o£-26'J to the squire mile, that it raises a revenue of tea millions sterling, and that 'it ha*» an hnporttratl'e ■equivalent to- £10 per head of its^ J>ogulation, n.nd ah export trade equal to nearly £7 per liead. .We do not learh^however, that any -considerable number pfminfarsin.Hiiinaultj, Natner, or liega have sounded the\' 3Sn£lish oi % French: Government as to the possibility of its finch .iog room for them, or that the Belgians make, ~&,nk complaint of their country Hieing' over-people^. Ofa the contrary, the census tables of the latest datie show jthat 3537 people entered Belgium, in 1871, above the number of those^whp quitted it during' the samo year, which is actually in excess of oiir gain by immigration over emigration in the- year i J.^73- - - — — .; I :