THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHErN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1883,

New Zealand Herald, Volume XX, Issue 6622, 7 February 1883, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHErN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1883,

The question of the Immigration of Labour is for a young colony second I only to that of the immigration ot capi- t talists. Indeed, in th' l estimation of I some, it is not of second but of lirst j importance ; and if we are to reckon | from the fact that it in almost the only I class of immigration 011 which in later time:; successive Governments have deemed it wise to expend public moneys, it would seem to be generally regarded as of all importance. That a due supply of labour is essential to the development of our resources, is of course undeniable, and the error into which we are likely to fall is not so much in minimising the importance of a labour supply, as in practically acting as if mere muscle is all that is required for building up the nation. Indeed, when bringing in labour, colonists are not wholly influenced by merely personal considerations in providing themselves with menials : but we have regard to the fact that the servant will by and by develop into the employer, probably acquire wealth, and transmit it to his children. If it were drudges or labour-machines only that we required, the supply could be obtained from China, India, or the South Sea Islands; and if we required domestic servants only in our female immigrants we could obtain a copious supply of negresses, faithful and competent handmaids, from the Southern States of America. The fact that public opinion would revolt against either one or the other of these sources of labour supply, shows that in importing labour we are looking to our immigrants to ultimately constitute an important portion of our social system. It is no wonder then that the public eye very jealously watches any abuse in the system of importing a labour supply, and we require to make 110 apology for attempting to throw a little light 011 the subject, so that possibilities of evil may be avoided, and we may obtain the very best class of fellow colonists through labour im migration, that it is possible for the machinery of the State to supply. Of all the systems for the conduct of free or assisted immigration, everybody freely gives the palm to the system of nominated immigration. What could be simpler, it seems, what could be fairer, what more likely to bring in the most suitable class of colonists '? A man has resided in the colony, and fought with and overcome the diliiculties incident to colonial life. "Who better than he to honestly show the bright and shady sides, and who more unlikely than he to write home and advise a friend to come and cast in his lot with us, unless he knows that the friend has the grit in him, that fits him for the colony ? Nay, more; what more likely than that, ere he has written for his friend, he should have found the very niche in which he intends to place him, and that the nominated immigrant should | walk from the ship's side into steady ! employment, without ever a taste of the bitter agonies that so many immigrants have to endure. The picture is such a pretty one that 110 wonder colonists are cliarmcd with it, and that they chuckle with a proud delight as every month sees rolling in the returns from local immigration officials all round the coast, recording that so many

hundreds have been nominated by their friends for free or assisted passages to New Zealand.

Now far be it from us to say that nominated immigration is not good immigration. In theory it is perfect, and many hundred worthy men and women and families it has introduced into the colony, and many an honest colonist's heart it lias warmed when h<» has been enabled to beckon to his friends from far away, from scenes of penury and care, and to brins: them to sit down beside him in a land of peace and plenty. And sorry indeed should we be to see the system abandoned. But there are two sides to every qu- 1 -• ion, and there is a sinister side to the nominated system, and it is to be feared that it has already introduced some undesirable colonists, and that it is capable of abuse even beyond any other system. Our readers are familiar witii the way it works. Persons in the colony send to the local immigration oliicers the forms of nomination with the names, ages, professions, A'C., of those for whom free or assisted passage is required. Clearly there can be no effective enquiry here into the character or iitness of the intended immigrant. Lt is assumed that he is either a relative, an old friend, or an acquaintance of the nominator, and the statement in the application is accepted as decisive ; and here, in the colony, at the head-quarters of the Immigration system, the nomination is approved. The whole matter, already settled, is then transmitted home, and the business of the Agent-General's office is merely to have it carried out, to find that the applicant is the person named in the nomination paper, and approved by Government; that he answers the description given as to age, profession, Ac., and to see that lie is at the ship's side at the appointed time of sailing. It is clear that the whole transaction is carried out on the good faith of the nominator in the colony, and that the responsibility for the character of the immigrants under the nominated system rests entirely on the Government itself. There is, perhaps, not in the service of New Zealand a more conscientious, faithful, and painstaking officer than Mr. Ivennaway, the secretary to the Agent-General, who has the practical oversight of emigration. But it is clear that in such a case as this the Government on this side having ordered a free or assisted passage, the usual machinery for investigating character and antecedents must be arrested. Indeed, any interference with the free course of a nomination, except in a very glaring case, would probably be regarded as unwarranted intrusion. While at the same time there is notliing in the system to prevent the nomination being the result of collusion ; in other words, there is nothing to prevent the nomination, odd as it may appear, from having its origin in the mother country, and

nothing to prevent unscrupulous agents at homo from carrying on a systematic scheme of nominated immigration, in co-operation with friends or agents here Let us illustrate the circumstances. Some years ago immigration in all it 3 phases—free, assisted, and by nomination—was in full swing. Thero were .sub-agents everywhere gathering in emigrants at so much a head. Suddenly the collection of emigrants at home was stopped, but the nominating system was continued. Many scores of sub-agents had received their dismissal ; there were about forty of them in Ireland alone. But did they suspend operations ? "Well, their advorI tiseinoiits continued in the papers, their | ofiicen remained open, and the number j of nominations that came home from I 2sew Zealand for persons resident | in those parts, was very respectable, so ! much so that we have read paragraphs | in colonial papers exulting in the fact, and illustrating the warmth of domestic | affection in the Celtic character, from the eagerness with which Irishmen sent home for their friends. The modus operandi may be best explained by a single illustration. An intending emigrant who had paid £5 to one of these sub-agents for a passage to New Zealand, applied to the Agent-General for the money. It appeals his patience had become exhausted by the length of the delay, for nominated emigration had then itself ceased. The sub-agent had received the money, told the applicant he would require to wait until he should get an answer from New Zealand, in reality until he should get him nominated there; but in the meantime nominated emigration had been suspended, there was no way of fultilling the contract, the £5 apparently had been spent, and the murder was out. An ollicer of the New Zealand Government was instructed by the AgentGeneral to go over and inquire into the case and prosecute. On arriving at the sub-agent's oliice lie found it closed, and the sub-agent himself in Omngh Gaol, having been prosecuted and sentenced to nine months' imprisonment at the suit of the Queensland-Government for something of a similar kind. Instructed to proceed in the case so soon as thet-enuof imprisonment might beended, the ollicer of the Government went at the end of seven months to the gaol, but found the culprit gone. The man had behaved well in prison; his term had been curtailed, and he and his belongings had flown westward to the land of liberty. Ile was only a clumsy thief, and had used false pretence, and so come within the meshes of the law. No one is, of course, in a position to say to what extent our favourite system of nominated immigration has been thus abused. It is enough to know that it is susceptible of abuse, that there are some hundred smart men with experience of our immigration systems, scattered over our recruiting grounds, men keenly alive to every chance of making money, men familiar with " the rope.s,'' who think they have a grievance, and are somewhat sore against the colony; men who have been the means of sending out emigrants in former times, and who in consequence have connections all over the colony. "When to this is added the fact that there are always to be found people desirous of obtaining cheap passages to the colonies, people oftentimes who would not pass muster under the more stringent scrutiny and personal inYestigation of the Emigration Oliice at home, we cannot fail to see that we have here all the necessary elements for gigantic abuse. And it may be a question whether many of those complaints which are at times so rife as to undesirable additions to our population, have not their grounds oftener in a system which is confessedly exempt from discriminating examination of candidates for free. and assisted passages, than in one which is responsible for an individual examination of every applicant. That the selection of emigrants after personal examination may admit undesirable people is possible ; that the reception of immigrants without any examination may admit such, is certain. Should v.-e, therefore, discourage the nomination system of immigration'? By no means. In theory it is, and in practice it ought to be, the most perfect of all systems. But to make it such, it should be accompanied by careful enquiry both here, and at home, not merely with regard to the character and fitness of the nominee, but the relation in which he stands towards the nominator, the motives of the nomination, and everything else that can throw light on the proceeding, so as to prevent this, the very be;it system for introducing immigrants, from being turned into a mere blind, a subterfuge to escape the ordeal of the Agent-General's oliice, and a means of introducing at the public expense, undesirable immigrants, to the gain of unscrupulous agents, and the lasting