Hawke's Bay Herald FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1899. THE AUSTRIAN IMMIGRANTS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 11127, 20 January 1899, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Herald FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1899. THE AUSTRIAN IMMIGRANTS.

If Mr Seddon's ohjecfc in trying to exclude Austrian immigrants" was to make New Zealand ridiculous in the eyes of the rest of the world he has succeeded. Only that and nothing more. What is the nature of the snubbing he has received from the Home Government we may never know precisely. But its nature may be guessed from the facts. The police and the permanent forces of the colony were invoked to stop the landing of two solitary Austrians. But when eighty arrived in a bunch they were allowed to land without opposition. That is enough to show that our autocratic Premier has been informed that ■ there are certain things which even a Premier of New Zealand, and a Privy Councillor and D.C.L. to boot, cannot do. In Tuesday's issue we reprinted a description of these Austrians from the Sydney Daily Telegraph. That they could give points to the average British immigrant in the matter of thrift and sobriety was sufficiently shown by tho fact that out of earnings of from three to four francs a day they had saved sufficient to pay £16 for their passages to the colony. There was nothing in this description to warrant the exaggerated alarm which appears to have been aroused by the tidings of the approach of these unsought iinmigrauts. Indeed, the Government might have regarded it as a feather in their <;ap that tho country under their adminiatratiou had proved sufficiently attractive to draw men of such a desirable class to its shores. However, even Mr 3eddon does not seem to have been ilone iv his unneighborly attitude, l'ho G-ovornment of New South Wales thought it necessary, as soon is they learned that there was some loubt whether the men would go on to this colony, to put in force igainst thorn the provisions of the lowly-passed Undesirable Iminijrantu' Restriction Act. Tliia precious measure specifies that any mmigrant who cannot legibly write

an application i'or admission tx> thfc colony in some Europeah language may be excluded^ It was not intended to apply to Europeans. When the measure was in the Legislative Council of the mother colony, the Attorney-General said that the Customs officers would pass white men as a matter of course, but would Buhject Hindoos, Assyrians, and other undesirable Asiatics to the test. As a matter of fact a bill had previously been passed specifically excluding the latter. But, as many of the persons aimed at are British subjects, the Hoyal assent was withheld, and the colonial Government was. recomlttfcnded to attain its object by substituting an educational test for the total ex-

elusion. Mr C. G, Heydoti, Q.C another member of the Council, re marked, "it Was really a bit of hypocrisy— if they liked to use that term— or, at any fate* diplomacy, rendered necessary because a bill not drawn in this diplomatic way failed to receive the Queen's assent." However, the Austrian immigrants evidently added to their other desirable qualities some smattering of education, for all but eight of them managed to pass the prescribed test with more or less credit, and the Premier, Mr Eeid, on being appealed to, allowed the others to land also. The Premier of Queensland also showed a true Statesmanlike instinct when he telegraphed that if the men came on to Brisbane no obstacle to them landing would be interposed. The incident shows most plainly the narrowing and stifling influence of the ill-informed Labor party to which Mr Seddon seems to have surrendered himself bo unreservedly. His opposition to the landing of these immigrants has been moat pronounced, that of Mr Eeid, who is tarred with the same brush, but not to the same extent, a little less so, and Mr Dickson, who of the three is the least under the malign influence, is least of all swayed by it. There cannot be the slightest doubt that these southern lands require above all things intelli gently-directed labor to develope their magnificent resources. They could support with ease ten times their present population, and when any one of them affirms that it cannot find room for able-bodied, hard-working young fellows, it ipso facto acknowledges that it has been brought to a terrible pass by misgovernment and maladministration. There is a natural desire to preserve the Auckland kauri gumflelds for our own people. But there is no excuse for taking such sudden and violent action as that which was taken in this instance, and which must have brought discredit on the colony in the eyes of Europeans. Action should be taken, if it is deemed absolutely necessary, to prevent these immigrants from starting, not to expose them to the greatest distress after having, in perfect good faith, embarked their all in the enterprise. The net result of the action o£ the Government is just the reverse of what was intended. An obscure Act of Parliament was passed, its real object being hidden because it would never have received the Queen's assent if it had stated truthfully what was intended. It was an Act which, without saying so, was intended to exclude Austrians from competition with British labor. All that it can do is to prevent them going on the gumfields for three months. The gumfields are the resort of the destitute, the lazy, and the drunken . They are " protected " for three months. In the meantime the Austrians must live. To live they must work. To get work they must compete with colonial labor of a higher grade than can be found on the gumfields. They will probably offer to work longer hours and at lower wages than are the rule here in order to obtain employment, and so reduce the standard of comfort of the laboring classes. And this is done in the interests of "Liberalism " and the working man ! More surprising still, a public meeting, largely composed of working men, and presided over by such a usually level-headed man as Mr Crowther, one of the members for Auckland, can be induced to laud this ridiculous action of the Government. When Carlyle said that the population of the world was so many millions, mostly fools, he put in concrete a solid fact.