IMMIGRATION.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIII, 24 June 1854, Page 5

IMMIGRATION.

Sir— lf you have a spare corner in your valuable publication, may I beg the favour of the insertion of a few words on the subject of Immigration? The great importance of the immediate introduction of labour into oar settlement, will, I trust, form a sufficient excuse for my request. The province of Nelson contains, I believe, in round numbers, eighteen millions of acresbeing of about the same extent as the whole of Scotland. Now, according to statistical returns, it appears that of these 18,000,000 there are but 6 857 acres at present under cultivation, and out of these only 1,202 bearing wheat, and 424 potatoes, the two most important crops, forming as they do the staple commodities of food. We also find that last year there were 840 acres lets of wheat than there were the year before, and only 34 more than in 1849 1 Our European population in 1849 amounted to 3,272 souls, and last year to 5,148, so that while our homo demands for food is on the increase, the supply is actually diminishing. How is this? It arises simply from the fact, that the scarcity of labour in the province has paralyzed all agricultural operations, and precluded the possibility of remuneration— or indeed of cultivation at all, on any larger scale. In addition to our increased home consumption, the growing Bistercolony of Australia offers a ready market for all our surplus produce, and will do so probably for years to come. We possess advantages of which few countries can boast : our climate is perhaps as fine as any in the world, out soil is most fertile, and springs and streams of the. purest water everywhere abound ; the aboriginal tribes are all friendly and submissive to our' rule ; we have neither wild beasts of prey, poir> bonous snakes, nor noxious reptiles, nothing in fact to endanger our safety or alarm us; our' harbour is a spacious and a safe one, and pos-! sesses one most important feature, viz., a sand* bank over which, at high tide, vessels of almost, any burthen may be anchored, and at low tide left safely high and dry upon it, by which means they may be examined and repaired at a mere nominal cost of both time and money; thus what art, at an enormous expense, has done for Sydney in her "patent slip," nature unaided has done for us, and the importance of this natural " slip " can scarcely be overrated. The Ann steamer underwent examination and repairs there at a cost of (I believe) £4, and a delay of two tides, and the Captain, as many may remember, made a public statement to the effect that the same repairs on the " patent slip " at Sydney would have cost him £200, and involved a delay of six weeks ! Our bay teemn with delicious fish; we have copper, coal, limestone, and slate (we know) almost at our doors, and flax grows wild and plentifully as weeds, and by a late invention, we hear that this much neglected natural production can be dressed, and made available as an export, at the rate of from £40 to £50 per ton. When the capal ilities and advantages which this settlement possesses are better known, and abundant labour has supplied our markets with cheap provisions, and our homes with domestic servants, we shall be better able to appreciate the blessings we enjoy, and hundreds will flock to our shore who will be only too glad to escape from a struggling, spirit-breaking existence, in the crowded towns and cities of the old country ; for here false pride and prejudice, and the conventionalities of society will no longer fetter and destroy their energies. We are within a few days' sail of Australia, and a few weeks' of India, and it is most probable thac in time this province will become the Sanitarium for both countries ; and when some sound educational scheme shall have been perfected and our College built, children from both countries will most likely be sent here for instruction. That parents in India will take advantage of this opportunity cannot be doubted, for here—a short pleasure voyage only separating them— they can visit their children frequently, and so keep np those close relations of parent and offspring which the present custom - of sending them to England so suraly severs; for the child, sent at an early age from tha ' baneful climate of India lest his constitution be' irrecoverably shaken or destroyed, cannot, after a separation of many years, feel that affection for bis parents which can only be the result of ' frequent intercourse. Here it will be very ' different. Here is a lovely climate, reached in a short time, and leave of absence to visit it granted to all who hold office in the East India Company's service, with full pay during their furlough. In addition to all this, it is not improbable that the Australian line of steamers via Panama may be induced to make this port one of its coaling stations. From these and many other advantages, one cannot see why this settlement should not become one of the most important in the Pacific. It may be a quiet, dull place now, it is true, but what was Australia a few yearß since ? And now her riches and resources are almost fabulous; indeed her his* to y is like a fairy tale, her rise has been so rapid and so great. It may be truly said that her gold fields have made Australia what she is. Let us then endeavour, by bringing under the ploui(b the thousend* of acres that are now lying desolate and neglected, to secure a portion . of this wealth; our superabundant crops will cause this gold to reach our shores, and shed upon our favoured land iv blowings onlypeace and plenty — without bringing in its train, as to its native soil it but too surely does. Cop* fusion, anarchy, and crime. To show what a ready market there hat bs«n for all our surplus produce, and in wba,t * flourishing state our exchequer xs, it may $c Htated that the exports last year amounUd M £34.223 \7».. and that at thn noeMnt £$000 ;-' an lying idl« ia our Trwtory j and fix w» nn

told that eight years ago the colonists were i digging up their seed potatoes for food ! Is i no.t this progress i And it must be remembered that this is no fictitious prosperity, it has been . effected by no extraneous pecuniary assistance ; i the fertility of the soil and industry of our fellow i settlers alone have brought the settlement to its < present state of prosperous independence.' This ' moreover: has been done with the seat of Go- < vernrnent 16,000 miles away, end now that the i legislature is in these'ttlers' own banfjs, it is to be ' expected ' and hopetf' that qur advancement will i be still greater, as, it is proverbial that "no one i knows so well where the shoe pinches as he who weajs it.'* , t it it The mountains around, for aught we know, rnayiieairly all contain, mineral wealth of some kind or other/ and', they will all grow pasture fo/shVep and cattle up to their very summits, ana tbW'be the 'means of supplying .'beef and mutton' toV.tUe hardy jnen^wnb 'may one day bring to light' their buried treasures. Our climate may. be s^aid to be almost perfect, for with' the exception of an occasional few days' rain, jt iSjOne of perpetual sunshine. We have rjeijther the excessive heat a r d hot winds of Australia, the enervating influences of India, the, ( intense cold ,of .Canada,, nor the foggy, dapqp, variable 'climate of England, to contend with, and there is,, not a poisonous or deadly animal of any kind in the island ; and yet this fine country is languishing for want of labour, and we are quietly allowing the opportunity of her becpeping great and powerful to pass unheeded by. Now let us cross the ocean to that small speck upon her bosom, that tiny island which has been th^ early home of most of us, and the love of which still lingers in our hearts ; let us visit the agricultural districts of England, and see how the men, who would make this country great, fare there. In many counties we shall find, farm labourers, with numerous families, subsisting upon from 9s. to 12s. per week, and out of this small sum 2s. or 35. weekly are to be paid fo.r rent, and with the remainder the family has to I>e maintained and clothed;, and there are many such families, who scarcely even taste meat,, and if they can but contrive to procure some suet for a Sunday's pudding, they consider themselves fortunate. This being the case, the question will naturally arise, " Why do they not come to New Zealand ? " Simply because perhaps they have never heard of such a place, or, if they have, their poverty has prevented .them from ever hoping to reach it. It has been 6hid that if men were brought here from England, the higher wages of the neighbouring colonies would be a sufficient inducement for them' to leave immediately. I doubt it. Moreover this is not the class of men that we wish to bring,; these " rolling stones," these men with a " Bedouin taint," would be useless here; it is tae genuine English rustics, the patient, hard-working sons of toil, the "hewers of wood and drawers of water" that we must have, rand these men are not fond of change, they will not be tempted to give up a home, however wretched it may be, from any advantages held out to them in seductive advertisements or printed circulars, but if we want them we must go to them, reason with them, and exptam "to them the certain benefits that must accrue to them and to their descendants from a -retboval from the overcrowded old country, .where their lives are being wasted, to the New England that ia springing up in the 6outh, where poverty is but a name, and a beggar never heard of. Once convince them of this, and by the system of assisted passages the rest will be very easy, for their poverty will no longer prove a hindrance to them, and, once settled here, these are not the men to lightly risk a second change. That labour must be brought here all confess, then why this lukewarmness — this delay?. Some of the other settlements have already led the van, and it is a matter of such deep and vital consequence to the interests of this province,, that it should at once engage the earnest attention of every settler who has the welfare of his adopted country at heart. I am, &c, , A Wbll Whhxr. Nelson, June 15. 1854.