The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 152, 2 July 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1867.

We observe by our late Victorian, exchanges that a measure has been introduced into the Parliament of that colony having for its object the revival of immigration on a large scale. The question is looked upon as of so much importance that, at the instance of members, the debate was adjourned for some days in order to enable them to study the question in all its varied bearings. For some time past the subject of immigration has lain dormant in our own colony, and the public have not cared to discuss the matter. This has been owing in a great measure to that mistaken idea which has gained considerable favor with our laboring population, that an influx of people would necessarily reduce wages and throw many hands out of employment. The complaint is, that already the number of hands are more than sufficient to do all the labor that is required, and that therefore any addition to this class of the population would only aggravate the evil. But there can be no -question that if we are to progress as a nation, it is absolutely necessary that we should devise means to draw a population, from the overcrowded countries of Europe; for if we rely merely upon a natural increase it would take us centuries before we should equal any of the petty | countries of Europe. An increase of population must necessarily add to the productiveness as well as to the business of this province, and from this the whole community must derive benefit. What would have been the fate of the British and American colonies in the western hemisphere had they not spent millions of money and offered very tempting inducements to emigrants to settle upon their lands? A thriving and numerous population is the greatest source of wealth which any country can possess, and it is the height of folly to expect that this colony can progress unless she draws largely from the crowded cities of Europe. We possess a country able to support and to give employment to any number of persons who may elect to make this colony their home; but the distance at which we are situated from Europe constitutes a great difficulty in the way of persons who wish to emigrate providing themselves with the requisite funds in order to defray the expenses of the passage. Under these circumstances it becomes the manifest duty of the State to find the means of keeping up a constant stream of immigration, for if we leave this most important feature in our prosperity to work itself, experience has proved that it must fail. Even the sweet voices and forcible arguments of the two Emigration Commissioners sent home by the New South Wales Government but a few years ago, failed to induce a single individual to cast his lot in that colony. Armed as they were with documents giving the most glowing accounts of Australia Felix, they still found that those who possessed means were unwilling to emigrate, and those who were without them were unable to bear the expense. When we read of the periodical recurrence of want aud starvation amongst the laboring population of the great cities of England, we must come to the conclusion that an occasional shipload ! of the most deserving and best adapted for colonial life would confer a benefit not only upon ourselves, but upon the home labor market. The senseless cry that labor is so : scarce that it would be unjust to add to . pur own already overcrowded labor market is scarcely worthy of attention, for every person who comes amongst us adds so

much to the prosperity of the country• Population will create labor, and the more numerous we become, the greater chances will there be for the establishment of those staple manufactories which form so essential a mainspring of England's prosperity. Victoria sees this well, and numbering a population iufinitely larger thau our own» it virtually confesses that to continue its . career of prosperity, some scheme must be devised to bring some thousands of immigrants yearly to its shores.