THE EXODUS FROM KENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1050, 18 March 1879, Page 2

THE EXODUS FROM KENT.

500 IMMTGR ANTS FOR NEW ZEALAND. The Louden ' Times ' correspondent, writing from Maidstone, on the 30th

January says :— " The farmers in Kent, having refused arbitration in the wages dispute between themselves and the labourers employod by them, the men have resolved to take advantage of the offer made them by the Government of New Zealand to proceed to that colony ; and yesterday tho emigrants, to the number of about 500, left Maidstone, accompanied by Mr Simmons, the secretary of the Labourer's Union, on their way to Plymouth, where, with about 200 more emigrants from different parts of the country, they will embark in a day or two on board the steamship Stadt Haarlem, which has been speecialiy- chartered and fitted for the purpose, at the cost of the New Zealand (Government. This is <he first time, in the experience of emigration, where emigrants have been sent to the Antipodes by steamer, but the result will, ne doubt, justify this departure #oni old custom, as the expense per head is not likely to be greater than thafc by sailing vessels, whilst the greater quickness- in which the voyage will be performed will attract a number of emigrants of a better class than usual. Tho cause of dispute between the -Kentish farmers and agricultural laborers has been most thoroughly discussed withinthelastthreemonths. Kentish hop and fruit-growers think that like other employers of labor, they should take advantage of the abundance of hands to reduce wages ; while their men think themselves, as being accustomed to tend hops and delicate fruiii, entitled to more liberal remuneration than their humbler brethren practised in nothing beyond grain and root crops. As the men were supported in their view by the Kent and Sussex Laborer's Union, their employers made a dead set against thafc body. Hence the lock-out, was supported with some firmness on both sides. The farmers decline to employ any men affiliated to the Laborers' Union. The men retort by raising from the fifteen thousand members of that society sufficient money to pay each of the locked-out 11s per week. The fanners determine to evict from their cottages members of the Union. The Union determines to send them to New Zealaud. This is not quite a nsw manoeuvre on the part of the Laborers' Union. Advantage has beeu taken for many years past of the terms offered by the Government of New Zealand to emigrants, to send agriculturists away from districts overstocked with labor, and it is in some respects the letters sent home by successful emigrants which tempt others to follow them. There seems little doubt that the action of the laborers is quickened by the failure of recent attempts at negotiation. Farmers are no fonder of arbitration than cotton masters, and demur, like them, .to adopt a principle which they insist has rained the iron trade. Hence, the Kentish farmers would nob hear of Mr Russell, tho County Court Judge, as an arbitrator, and hold to their determination to evict their tenants within three weeks. I hear that a large number of the cotters threatened with eviction leave their cottages to-night. There is, in foct, a general determination towards emigration in this and the adjoining county ; and what is most carious among the Kentish men is that they have made up their minds to carry with them to New Zealand not only the peculiar horticultural skill they possess, but the matorial on which to employ it. Those accustomed to tend fruit may or may not find work suited to their hand, but the hop hands take their work with them. It is stated in this centre of the hop district that Kentish hops have already been tried in New Zealand, and have succeeded beyond all expectation ; wherefore, the new contingent scarting to-morrow take with them several cases of hop sets of the best varieties known in Kent, as well as 200 pairs of skilled hands to tend them. It seems that the same law which I have remarked in other parts of the country obtains in Kent. The best men, the best instructed, the nrjst muscular, in every sense the most valuable men, emigrate, leaving the old, deprepid and inferior behind. The conditions of emigration have, of course, much to do with bringing about this result. Our colonies pay for labor, and ere ready to incur expense to get it, but they will not import worthless material. Australia and New Zealand will pay handsomely for strong, healthy man in the prime of life, and have no objection to a wife and a family within reasonable limits, but both of these colonies define their limit exactly enough. New Zealand will take from Plymouth to Ohrisfcohurch or Wellington workmen under the age of forty-five, with not more than three children under the age of twelve, over which they count as adults. Few would be found to blame the colonies. They actually buy their labor and at a high price, and have some kind of right to choose the people who come at their expense to do their work and be paid for it. But the effect will be as disastrous to the southern and to the western counties of Kent as to Cornwall. A mass of residents will be cast upon the parish ; men overburdened with enormous families, and old people beyond anything but the workhouse. However, it is certain that of the picked men nearly everyone will leave behind him no inconsiderable sum of monev in dues paid to the Laborers' Union. But apparently they regretted the loss very little in their supposed great gain in getting away to a country where success may attend upon bar a work.