INDUCEMENTS TO IMMIGRATION.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 84, 5 December 1874, Page 6

INDUCEMENTS TO IMMIGRATION.

MThe struggle between the agricultural labourer and his employer in the Home country still continues, and an equitable adjustment of the value of his services seems as far off as ever. Indeed, in some of the counties of England the farmers, instead of exhibiting a conciliatory spirit towards their employe's, would appear to be reversing the order of things, and have taken the anomalous and somewhat singular course of making an abundant harvest a pretext for a further reduction in the wages of Hodge. By what process of reasoning or logic this strange determination has been arrived at, it is somewhat difficult to discover ; but that such has been the fact is beyond a doubt. An English journal states that in South Wilts the harvest this year has been so unusually abundant that the bells of the churches in that shire were set ringing to call persons together to give thanks to heaven for the bounty ; and, in gratitude for the blessing thus received, a. unanimous decision was arrived at by employers to signify, by some action in an especial manner, their thankfulness. The mode of procedure of carrying out this end, though one that but few v would be found to endorse, will scarcely be denied credit for originality, being nothing more nor less than the taking one shilling per week off the wages ot each laborer in their employ. As a natural consequence, and as might have been readily imagined, the objects of this equivocal proceeding, who were made the unwilling mediums of carrying out the pious design, have failed to exhibit a becoming thankfulness, and forthwith the vials of wrath have been poured out upon their devoted heads. Poor Hodge has been stigmatised as an obstinate soulless being, upon whom it were useless to> waste human sympathy, and the agricultural leagues which have striven to raise up the trampled laborer, and protect him against the grinding oppression to which he has so long submitted, are characterised as the primary and main cause of his present base ingratitude. It must be a matter of son»e surprise tc the class so treated, that while those who reap such material benefits from, the toil of their hands and the sweat of their brow, should take such little pains to retain their services ; but, on the contrary, by the ill-judged and ungenerous policy puTaued, seek to promote a result, the effects of which must recoil upon themselves. From all quarters of the globe, from the northern and southern hemispheres alike, come alluring offers for his services, one more tempting

than another; and it is scarcely to be wondered at, when he sees the very abundance which is the outcome of his toil made the pretext for further oppression, that he should turn his back upon such treatment, and seek in other lands fresh fields of labor, where his toil cannot fail to meet with a fitting recompense. Every British colony presents a wide field of enterprise to the burdened laborer, and each vies with the other in their efforts to secure the bone and sinew which the farmers of England hold at such a discount. New Zea land possesses millions of acres into which a spade has never yet entered arid on its broad lands there is ample scope for the thousands of strong arms and willing bands, whose worth and value are unrecognised and unrewarded in the land that gave them birth. Queensland, Canada, New South Wales South and Western Australia, and even Tasmania, with ta limited area and resources, has entered the lists with its more powerful neighbours in the struggle for the services of the much despised Hodge. Even Mexico, torn as it has been almost for a century with internecine struggles, follows in the wake of younger communities, and' in its published manifestos holds out inducements to the immigrant which are calculated to eclipse all others for liberality The following are some of the inducements put- forth :— lmmigrants to that country are to be carried at the expense of the Republic from their starting point to the particular spot they may select, on arrival at which they will receive ninety dollars toward the£ support during the first year, and if the party be dissatisfied j with the country at its termination their passage will be naid to their former place of residence. When fifty families or more settle in one colony they may constitute a municinal corporation, elect their own officials, and adopt ordinances for local government, not inconsistent with the State or Federal laws. Their lands are to be free from taxes for five years and all their provisions, tools and material f«r houses shall be free ot duty, and any vessel bringing more than ten immigrants shall be free of lighthouse, anchorage and pilotage duties. An immigrant will be declared a citizen the moment he sets hjs foot upon land, and equal in every respect to natives of the soil. And last, though not least, each one ma y select not less than 110, or more than 1100 acres, which he can cultivate without charge for ten years, which at the end oUnat time becomes his property, either by paying the full price down, or one tenth annually for ten years more Liberal and tempting, no doubt, as the inducements thus offered would appear, it is somewhat questionable if the English agri cultural laborer will be induced to give it the preference to the advantages to be found in an English colony And although foreigners, when leaving their native countries, invariably select a British possession, there is anything but a reciprocity of feeling in the matter on the other side At the present time, when every facility is at hand to end the tyranny exercised by employers of labour in the Home country, the struggle possesses a peculiar interest to colonists at large, as, if the grasping selfishness and short-sighted policy at present pursued be adhered to, it must ultimately prove a benefit and gain to ourselves.