ADVERTISING THE COLONY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10131, 14 May 1896, Page 4

ADVERTISING THE COLONY.

The above subject ..has' teen ably brought before thfl.publio. and the Chamber of Commerce by Mr. L. D. Nathan and Mr- 6. Aickin. MrjNathan was lately in England, and was surprised to find that the general public—

that is, all those outside of a very small circle of persons in the financial, ship- : ping, and commercial classes- knew nothing of New Zealand, and were not. aware of the Attractions which it',-; possesses. The object of moving in the "% Chamber of; Commerce was to urge on '/ the Government to establish agencies % in -London;; and Glasgow, subordinate I* to the Agent-General's office, which £; should "disseminate amongst the people?:?? of Great Britain such literature as is'/ specially calculated to draw prominent attention to our colony and its principal >• : features." We quite coincide with the',;* object of the movement. Our resources:"! and attractions ought to be made known in those centre* where men!! find money abound/ mining re// sources are now becoming known, and*/ everyone can recognise hov that has been % achieved. West Australia, and Souths Africa advertised their capabilities in/: the way of auriferous lodes, and there .': was created in Europe a demand for gold £ mining investments. Jmt at that time "s the VVaihi mine, mostly held at Home, / ■was shown to be abundantly productive, / and thereupon we received a portion of '. the capital which was/ready to be/ invested in gold mining.: That was our - advertisement, and it did its work. We have no dtmbt that something of the ■■: same kind could be ddne with regard to A other interests if the proper means % were adopted. We have several times;,.? of late pointed out how a steady stream of immigration of small capitalists?, could be 'induced if the? proper means'; were adopted. We must always keep: this in mind, that although it is a very; good thing to obtain from . abroad capital to be expended here, it .would; be far better to Obtain the men and the} i capital. It is gratifying, no doubt, to hear of large dividends from-this or : that mine, but it would make a greatdifference to us |f the? dividends were payable to persons residing in or about; Auckland. But }he speakers, .at the..-: Chamber of Commerce; did not allude:" to what is the greatest obstacle to their proposals being idopted, and that isj the hostility to immigration consistently / shown by the party now in power. Tlit / whole cours : ,of our recent legislation:; has been to discourage it, culminating * in that typical Undesirable Immigrants': Bill, which would have annoyed and)' excluded the tourist. And, moreover,/ we have sent Home;as Agent-General?;; the leader of th§ 'ArH-Immigration/'. party. While Mr. Keevjs is in London he will not moveja;;tii|ger to induce/ persons to come here who would devote./ capital to the land. /He may be very:. ■zealous in making inquiries about how?New Zealand produce i* dealt with; when it gets to London,?: but there his/, activity will end. /Supposing that?; it were proposed next, session to;? vote a sum to be/expended in/? advertising the colony : as a desir-/ able place for tliose;; possessing a; small capital to purchase land and to settle, the vote would-be negatived' at : , once. Further, such %' vote would be % of no avail without .'oilier means being-* taken to satisfy and (attract the class ';■ we have referred to, and these means J have no chance of being; adopted bj>; the present rlouse. The post eflectivi/ means of advertising inEigland is bj>| competent lecturers. -.But what ih-\4 ducements ciuld a lecturer put befor* ? his audience? The Government would • not aid them in regard to passage . They would have no opportunity of knowing before they left where they could obtain land for settlement. They would be told that they would have to come tier* and take their chance of a ballot. Advertising is in all cases only a mean? to an end. Simply to; induce touruts is not a sufficient i, purpose, and our democracy has de-? clared against endeavouring- , to obtain .• settlers. . "'■' ,- ; v..-;j