AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRANTS

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12571, 14 August 1906, Page 2

AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRANTS

TO THE EDITOR OF "THE TRESS." Sir, —Now Zealand oa the whaie is generally referred to by successful business men, and politicians in tho country as a land flowing with milk and honey, a land, in fact, where there is no poverty and n> vice (except that introduced by undesirable Australians). A man has but to commit a crime of any description in New Zealand, and he is at once set down as an Australian. unat stigma will go far to convict many an honest and well-meaning man upon suspicion alone, where so much unreasonable prejudice exists not only m the minds of the public but throughout the law courts. How has this feeling been engendered against Australia and her often houost sons/ who, driven by drought, flood, or fire, seek to earn a living by honest toil in New Zealand.-' The general impression among peoplo who cannot, or will not, trouble to go further than hearsay, is that irulia was, in the first place, and is now, peopled only with convicts, and men and women of a distinctly lower order than tho average run of mankind. I even heard \ilhen I first arrived in the colony (and have heard it often since) a man say, "Hut the peoplo of Australia are known to be tho most brutal, low, and savage race on earth/ and the speaker showed mc a clipping from a newspaper which, ol course, referred to the native blacks. Upon mv explaining this to him. ho bc-came harder than ever to convince, and said in support of his argument, "I call myself a native of New Zealand. I was born here, and yon can t tell mc anything more about Australia. 1 did not attempt to do so. I The co'.onv is praised by the I rers and public speakers as a land whero there is universal prosperity and work for all, with huge surpluses and wonderful laws for tho working man. Theee idle boasts lionet rate to other colonies; to the eves of hundreds of poor, wellnigh hopeless unemployed New Zealand appears a perfect Paradise, and so they strive to reach this lovely haven. And wliat is.the result? The poor wretch, transformed into a hopeful man again, lands in Wellington or Auckland. Aluk! the streets are the same; he sees care- . worn faces as he goes up to the Labour Bureau, but still hopeful, he aslre for work. "Do you belong to New Zealand >" Unsuspicious/ and still proud of the land of his birth, he says, "No, just arrived from Sydney." 'Oh! the official shudders, "look in again in a month. Good day!" ¥"A month," thinks the deluded applicant. "I must get something to do in the meantime," and so he buys a paper and scans tho advertisements, pees c-evoraJ smitable jobs and applies. The same question the same replies, or perhaps "must have local references," and so the same thing goes on from day to day. At last, dri.von by necessity, he leaves Sydney out. He is a New Zealander. But alas! he lias no references (which must be local). Arrived at the end of his resources, his boots worn out, he gives wav under the pinoh of hunger to the hitherto avoided temptation*, and steals—or attempts to. Before the Court, desperate, a wreck, and more hopeless than ever, ho looks—what perhaps he now is—a criminal. "Another Australian bad egg caught. Thank goodness I" and the newspaper reader shudders at the thought of what might have been. All who read this cannot but admit the truth of what I havo written. . , j Thero are robberies occurring every day almost in and around Christchurch, attributed, all of them to Australians. Are they Australians cr Chrietchurch- \ bred criminals? Sydney, indeed, lias a bad name, but will not Ghristchurcih have a worse if this sort of thing goes on? Sydney, as a matter of fact, in proportion to its population is not (ao: cording to statistics) so bad as Christ- ( church. All Australians aro not eon- ; victß or the sons of convicts any more than Now Zealajiders. The remedy can be brought about by discarding unctuous and seJfiefh tltouglrts, giving a man (though he is an Australian) a fair trial and a chance to live fairly without branding him at first sight as j a criminal.—Yours, etc., CLIFFORD G. PENN-BRADLY.