ATTRACTING IMMIGRANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 246, 14 October 1908, Page 2

ATTRACTING IMMIGRANTS.

ESTBM7TS FROM NEW ZEALAND 13AKDBOOK. , CBj Telegraph.—Own Correspondent! WEM-INGTON, this day. Statements have been made in many quarters that the publications circulated with a view of attracting Britishers t 0 the Dominion are too highly coloured, and that the Government assists to pay ' the passages of persons' who may experience great difficulty in establishing themselves in New Zealand. Important features of a New Zealand handbook Is- : sued by the Emigrants' Information Of.. flee in London, with the sanction of the High Commissioner are tv list of prices which, it quotes for land, and the estimates of the capital required for working it. "Speaking generally," it is written,"land may be bought in Auckland at t£_l to £20 an acre, £4 to £16 in Hawke's. Bay, £4 to £20 in Taranaki (or to rentnear a town 15/ to 30/, or in the country 5/ t 0 10/, both with house), from £7 in ' Wellington, £3 10/ to £30 (or an average of £8 to £15) in Canterbury, tad £3 to £15 in Otago, but prices, tend. to. rise. Most of the best unimproved land requires clearing, which involves great labour and expense." Seferring to Anckland province, the book says: "There are openings for ' farmers with small capital, but the farmer himself must be a working man, and his wife and daughters working women. Such a man could start on a few acres with a capital of from £50 to £100." In the matter of reduced passages, the book states that passages may be granted to farmers, agricultural labourers, shepherds, woodcutters, arid men able to milk cows and manage live stock, possessing fixed incomes or a capital of at least £25, who satisfy the High Commissioner for New Zealand that they will in other respects also be suitable settlers. Domestic servants without capital are also eligible for these reduced passages if they will have £2 on landing." On the subject of. living and rent the book contains these passages: "Speaking generally, the cost of living is loweT as compared .to earnings than it is at Home. The rent of a two or three-roomed cottage is about 5/ to II in towns; larger houses with four ot five rooms suitable for workmen cost from 8/ to ■ 14/ a week in Auckland, 10/ to 15/ in Dunedin, 10/ to 16/ in Napier, 10/ to 20/ in Christchuxeh, and 14/ to 25/ in Wellington; but rent is less in the suburbs. Bent in the country varies from 4 /to 8/ per week and upwards and in the smaller country towns 8/ to 14/."