DISAPPOINTED IMMIGRANTS

Evening Post, Volume LXXI, Issue 68, 21 March 1906, Page 7

DISAPPOINTED IMMIGRANTS

« HOW TO SEARCH FOR LAND. WHERE INFORMATION CAN BE OBTAINED. AN IMMIGRANT'S LETTER. "INSIDIOUS MISREPRESENTATION" AND "STUFFING." No. IV. Mr. O'Neill, of tho Head Office of the Lands Department, was most willing to give out reporter all the information at his disposal concerning the Crown lands available for settlement, and the best method of making a selection. Immigrants, he said, were treated an exactly the same way. They were provided with Crown lands guides and schedules of property awaiting selection, assisted "to make an inspection of any land -£ey thought would suit their requirements, and en couraged to establish themselves on the land in every way. The officials at the District Office of the Lands Department (Government) Insurance Buildings) also courteously supplied our representative with more detailed information than could be obtained at the head office. On the whole it would appear that a comparatively small number of immigrants from Home call directly at the District Land Office. Whether this is due to shyness or lack of encouragement to seek information or ignorance of tho precise quarter where at can be obtained is a matter for conjecture. Occasionally it transpires that a caller, in making enquiries about the land available, discloses that he is an immigrant, but this, as ajmears, is not general. Immigrants desiring to make enquiries about Crown lands will be furnished with information at the Head Office (Government Buildings, Lambtonquay) or the District Office (Government Insurance Buildings). "PICKED OUT." "Of course you must admit," an official said to our reporter, "that people have been over the land and the best of it has been picked out." That statement just about puts the position in a nutshell. The Crown land awaiting settlement is mostly bush country or second-class pastoral land running into high altitudes — it is anything but the paradise the immigrant believes he is coming to settle on. The bush settler, however, enjoys liberal terms. After laying the first half-year's rent he can go on for four years without paying any further instalments if he elects to do so. This is a big concession, and often gives encouragement to the man of stout heart (who goes forth with an axe and a tent to subdue the wilderness) often when he is sadly iv need of it. "A tremendous number of Australians are coming into New Zealand," another Government official said. "They are coming in every day ; you would hardly credit it, and many of them have made known their intention of settling on the land. It is astonishing, too, to notice the interest that is centred in New Zealand abroad. We frequently get letters from America (the United States) and British Columbia asking about the prospects here. A VIGOROUS COMPLAINT. "Had Some" writes : — You are rendering a service to the cause of honesty by ] publishing the articles on immigration. Four years ago I was one of a number j who (misled by the insidious misrepresen- j tat ions of this colony's conditions by certain people who had been "stuffed" by Government officials) immigrated to New Zealand, and have bitterly repented ib ever since.. Many homes and many hopes have been shattered to my certain knowledge by the exaggerated reports of the Labour Department, the Tourist Department, and by individually prosperous and interested persons, scattered through the United Kingdom. Hundreds of people have sold every stick they had, to throw the money away in paying fares to this place, and would now give years of life if only they .could get away from conditions worse than what they left behind. Who, but fools, at Home would take any notice of those figures you prinb from the Labour' Department showing how many men they have found employment for? Employment for how long? At what net rate of pay? Of course we all know that the Labour Department is used to make the public think that) there aro no unemployed. The unemployed are just, as it were, shot in one end of a shoot and out at the other, hence the lying cry of "scarcity of labour." lam earning maximum wages in this city, so the taunt so often thrown ati immigrants as "unfit," "unemployable," etc., by sycophantic Government officials has no effect on me; yet, in spite of my maximum wages (the purchasing power of which, by the way is less than at Home by fifty per cent.), I am and have been for some time past carrying on a campaign in the Home press against .the emigration tactics of the New Zealand Government's Home officials, and I think it is high time some organised effort was made to prevent people coming here under false representation of the true economic position in New Zealand. I have already stopped a good many people, and if any of your correspondents would send their napes to me, care of your office, something might be done to "adverbs?" New Zealand in a way little to the taste of the unscrupulous bosses of our Emigration and Immigration Departments.

The election of tho members of the first Board under the Teachers' Superannuation Act of lost year has resulted ns follows: — North Island (two members) -Mr. William Foster, Wellington, 278; Mr. W. T. Grundy, Wellington, 255; Mr. W. N. M'lntosb, Onehunga, 180; Mr. A. Erskine, Wellington, 165 ; Mr. George Lippiatt, Auckland, 97. South. Island (two members) — Mr. Thomas Hughes, Christchurch, 236; Mr. William Davidteon, Mornington, Dunedin, 219 ; Mr. James Jeffrey, Anderson's Bay, Dunedin, 198 ; Mr. J. H. Harkncss, Westport, 123. The Board will consist of Messrs. Foster and Qrundy (North Island) and Messrs. Hughes and David- : son (South Island). Tho number of vot- [ ing-papers issued for the North Island was 639, and 497 were returned within. ! ihe allotted time. Of the 524 papers issued to the South Island 408 wero returned. Five of the voting-papers returned for tho Nort hlsland were informal. Forty papers which bore evidenco of having been posted after the day of election were not opened by the Returning Officer (Sir E. 0. Gibbes, Secretary for Education). A civil action in which Airs. Isabella Tobin, of Stokes Valley, claimed £22 rent from Chas. Cue, a market gardener at the Taita, was decided by Dr. A. M'Arthur, S.M.. to-day. The defendant sought to get up a partnership between himself and plaintiff. There was a partnership between plaintiff's husband and defendant, bub his Worship held that no partnership existed between plaintiff nnd defendant. Judgment was for plaintiff for the full amount, with £4 19s costs. J*lr Campbell appeared for plaintiff and Mr. Wilford for the defendant. Messrs. Macdonuld, Wilson and Co. will continue tho 6alo to-morrow forenoon, at 11 o'clock, at tho residonco of Mr. J. Zachariah, No. 76, Ghuznee-strcet, of his household furnishings, solid silverware etc. Tho lotb to bo sold to-morrow will comprise tho diningioom, plato, library, ball, staircase, bedrooms, otc. Detailed catalogues can bo had on application. On tho 29th inst., at tho farm of Mr. Abornetliy, Knrori-crescent (off Tinakori-rqad), the iirm will sell 30 dairy cow« and heifers > and other lots. as detailed* *