A BATCH OF IMMIGRANTS.

Evening Star, Issue 12843, 19 June 1906, Page 2

A BATCH OF IMMIGRANTS.

[SpbclAi. to tub Stab.J WELLINGTON, June 19. With a living freight of some 696 souls, the big Shaw, Bavili steamer A theme steamed into port from London yesterday morning.' The vo»el brought 440 passengers in all, most of these (or 596) being immigrants from London. The passengers are a tine, heal thy-100 king lot of men and women, who should make satisfactory settlers. The Immigration Department sent an official (Mr J. K. March) out to meet the new arrivals, and the Labor Department also had an official on the spot to give them any information they required. Mr March, ,oI the first-mentioned department, inspected the immigrants, and did all in his power to put them in the way of lauding without difficulty. Ho expressed himself satisfied ■with the new arrivals, whom he considered to be a very desirable and respectable class, and who should make admirable settlers. The ship’s papers give the occupations of the new comers, and state that there are no less than twenty-nine on board with no occupation, which is a much more formidable number than any of the vessels have brought ol late. * The other passengers are mostly laborers, domestic servants, navvies, and farmers. There is one party of twenty domestic servants, in charge of Miss Birchell, matron. These are fine-looking young women, and have come out under engagement to residents at Hastings, Hawke's Bay. A representative of the ‘Post’ who has seen most of the recent batches of passengeri which have arrived from the Old Country mixed freely with the new arrivals, and found them to be a useful-looking lot of men, probably the best samples all round that have reached New Zealand of late. They all appeared to bo happy and imbued with the idea that they havo only to work to do well in this country. —Dearth of Work in England.—

In conversation with one young Englishman, the newspaper man was informed that things are in a very had way in London just now. “In fact, said the now arrival. “England is now living solely on her old same.” Thousands of people are out of work in all quarters of the country. The office of the New Zealand Agent-General is besieged with inquiries from hundreds of people day after day. These, mostly men, have not, in the majority of cases, sufficient money to come out to the colony, and they endeavor to bargain with the authorities to bring them out and allow them to pay the money back after they have secured work in New Zealand. This, of oou'-re, the High Commissioner cannot agree to. The class of men endeavoring to come out ursicr these terms is said to be good.

—Affairs Worse in South Airies.—• Another passenger, booked from S- nth Africa, gives a doleful account of the position affairs in that country as far ns the working man is concerned. There is no room for the laborer there, the only man who has any chance being the skilled worker. Another South African passenger remarked: “From what I can leant, we can’t starve here, as we did in Africa, provided we graft. This is a white man’s country, not a black man’s.” —Occupations of the Arrivals.— The occupations of the passengers are given as follows in the official list:—Laborers 39, domestics 27, navvies 26, farmers 24, no occupation 29, carpenters 12, miners 7, plumbers 6, farm hands 4, engineers 4, fitters 3, butchers 3, ironmongers 3, engine cleaners 2, clerks 3, blacksmiths 2, machinists 2, nurses 2. masons 2, bakers 2, bricklayers 2, grocers 2, gardeners 2, joiners 2, painters 2, and one each of the following: —Chemist, millwright, fruiterer, buttermaker, relief stamper, telegraphist, engineer, wheelwright, coach-trimmer, blacksmith, post officer carrier, policeman, dairyman, fireman, confectioner, trainer, printer, caretaker, traveller, electrician, architect, cigaretteinaker, porter, shipwright, harnessmaker, timekeeper, surveyor, manufacturer, and miller. —Demand for Domestics.— Mr» Birchell, who came out in charge of twenty-three domestic servants, states that she has had a large number of inquiries in Wellington for her girls since sho landed, but she could cot entertain any of the offers, as the girls have come out under engagement. Nineteen are going on io HastIncs, and four will remain in Wellington. Asked as to whether any further hatches of domestics would follow, Miss Birchell 'aid ebe could say nothing definite. It was a difficult matter to get the right doss of domestic to coma out to New Zealand, in view of tho high wages ruling in Cape Town. Some of the Napier passengers left by Jhe Talune in the afternoon.