MISLEADING EMIGRANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1922, Page 4

MISLEADING EMIGRANTS.

We said yesterday that the Government bad no plan for connecting immigration with land settlement. We have eince received information that indicates that there ie something wrong with the Government's actual dealings with immi-

grants. A correspondent forwards the following advertisement as having appeared ::-s recently as March of this year in a Glasgow paper: — EXI'EIUKNCED DOMESTIC SERVANTS nrcguißEn yon new Zealand. Free piis-sajres anil £- for expenses on .joiuing steamer, l'arties of girls accompanied by Matron. London to New Zealand. Received on arrival by Woman Government Officers. Iteliable situations guaranteed. Farm Hand.*. Carpenters ami Joiuers. Plumbers, Blacksinitus anil Bricklayers also required. Exc-llent climate—goorl wages. Write for particulars, stating experieuce. The Illsli Commissioner for Xew Zealand (Emigration Section:, 115, Strand, London, W.C., 2. We do not know whether to-day reliable situations can be guaranteed for all domestic servants coining to Nsw Zealand, but what we particularly wieh to draw attention to in this advertisement ie the statement that "carpenters and joiners, plumbers, blacksmiths, and bricklayers" are "also required.' , which implies that there are jobs waiting for all such workers. This is not correct. There is a certain amount of unemployment in Xew Zealand among these classes of workers. Possibly the High Commissioner's office informs applicants of thU fact, but we should like an assurance on the point. If an English artisan likes to take the risk of coming to Xew Zealand from a country where there is so much distress and unemployment, let him come, but he should not be encouraged to do so by the Government in the belief that conditions here are better than they really are. This advertisement, coming on top of complaints by immigrants that they were misled in England as to prospects here, makes us suspect strongly that this country's agent* at Home are out of touch with conditions in Xew Zealand. Yet we find on looking up record that a year ago this question was disuussed by a Government official, who admitted that misleading pictures of life in Xew Zealand had been painted in England, and stated that an official had been sent Home to correct them. The Minister in Charge of Immigration should give this matter his immediate attention.