THE COLONIES AND "THE SUBMERGED TENTH."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8888, 26 May 1892, Page 6

THE COLONIES AND "THE SUBMERGED TENTH."

NEW ASPECT OF THE QUESTION. The Sydney Morning Herald says " The proposal of General Booth for shipping a contingent of 50,000 of the 'submerged tenth' to New Zealand is calculated to create a difficulty scarcely less serious than that involved in the questions of the introduction of Chinese, coolies, and Kanakas into tropical Australia. What we are presented with is the prospect of a very considerable settlement of people whom, in the present temperof these colonies, weshould certainly be very much indisposed to admit into continental Australia. We recognise the helplessness of any of the colonies in an attempt to restrain the action of any other colony in respec': of its domestic legislation, or any procedure in which its people may embark within the confines of their own territory. Those who have been antagonistic to the federation of the colonies, who had the opportunity of seeing how the absence of federation affects the question of the occupation of the tropical parts of Australia by coloured labour ; and though it has not been expected that New Zealand should be immediately included in the union, we can see, in such a case as this, the contingencies that may possibly arise from the settlement of a large number of undesirable colonists in these neighbouring islands, without the public voice of the colonies being able to exercise any influence in restraint of it. Indeed there is something like irony in the fact that New Zealand, which eschewed organic union with Australia partly because of the probabilities of our being embarrassed with the great problem of alien and degraded labour, should itself give us occasion to look askance at it over the possible introduction of a scarcely less objectionable class. Sir George Grey, who may be regarded as the leading opponent in New Zealand to the federal union of that colony with continental Australia, bases his chief objection on this ground. He tells the people of New Zealand that the occupation of tropical Australia by labourers of an inferior race is inevitable, and that sooner or later the people of Australia will be confronted with a perplexing problem, in the existence of two distinct classes over a wide area of the continent—that of European masters and an inferior and alien race of labourers. From that condition of things and the vexin„ questions that will arise out of it, he desires to keep New Zealand free, to preserve it for the democracy of the British race, pure and undefiled. But if hew Zealand were to be made the dumping-ground for the social outcasts of the United Kingdom, reformed or uniformed, we should bo warranted in taking as high ground, and in looking at the island colony as a menace to the purity of our social life from the probable overflow of its slumlife from London. For we may rest j assured that no more than we can keep the recidivate elements of New Caledonia from being cast up as flotsam and jetsam on our shores ; no more than the coloured labour of the Far North can be kept from streaming over the artificial boundaries of the Southern States, shall we be able to repel the floatage from over the Tasman Sea, if New Zealand should consent to deluge itself with the social sewage of the mother country. Observation has established the fact of the heredity of worthlessness and thriftlefjsnees and crime; and if the reformed failures of England come in their fifty thousands, the time will not be faraway when they must appreciably affect the character of the population. The fact that hew Zealand—though the remotest point in the world from England that is capable of settlement—has been selected by General Booth as the scene for his first ventures, shows that it presents to him attractions for this particular enterprise that are not found in South Africa or Canada or any other place in which local feeling did not etand in the way ; and it is not improbable that—the expense of transport being once overcome—the facility for acquiring land, its cheapness and easiness of access, together with the mild and equable character of the climate, present particular inducements for making New Zealand a dumping-ground. If this is so, it may be expected that General Booth's tipcarts will ply merrily, and the disposition of the fifty thousand, if satisfactorily effected, might open the purse strings of all that i are interested in the amelioration of the condition of 'Darkest England.' If the statement as to General Booth's contemplated operations is correctly made, the position is one invested with unpleasant possibilities ; and, though we may bo helpless to interfere, it is one that craves public attention in Australia."