A VISITOR FROM RUSSIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12194, 13 February 1903, Page 5

A VISITOR FROM RUSSIA.

M. KRUKOFF INTERVIEWED. [by TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT-] Wellington Thursday. Thkke is at present in Wellington M. Nicholas Krukoff, inspector and representative of the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, who has come to investigate the agricultural, economic, and social conditions prevailing in New Zealand, with a view to bringing the knowledge thus acquired to the improvement and elevation of the peasantry in the Russian Empire. M. Krukoff expects to spend about three weeks in New Zealand. During that time he intends to visit Christchurch, Dunedin, Auckland, and all the other leading centres. It is his purpose to confer with the Minister for Agriculture as to how his stay can best be utilised. The great aim, he considers, of alt new and completely developed countries should be how to get suitable immigrants, not to put obstacles in their way. Asked by a Times representative how he considered the social conditions of peasant life in Russia, Canada, and Australia generally compared, M. Krukoff replied that the circumstances of each country varied so much that an accurate comparison was well-nigh impossible. In Russia the peasantry were comparatively poor and ignorant, and their needs were all the smaller. He described his rural compatriots as a deeply-religious people, who gladly devoted the hours snatched from labour to study, but their brethren in the Australian States participated more in outdoor sports, and were agitated mostly by considering the probable winner of the Melbourne Cup rather than as to how the harvest would turn out. He regards the high price of productive land in Australia and the difficulty of obtaining labour at a reasonable price as insuperable drawbacks to the progress of the Commonwealth. "There you have," he said, "a vast country thinly populated, and whereas in Canada a fanner can easily obtain a labourer glad to live in his house as a member of his family, in Australia such a man is not available." The labour laws and the laws restricting immigration that obtain in Australia he looks upon as inimical to its advancement, as he thinks any country of its size and meagre population should be glad to receive any newcomers not absolutely useless "or "objectionable with open arms. The dearth of labour is, he says, a great and constant subject of complaint .with the Australian farmer. The Canadian Government has, in his view, displayed a wise discretion in the facilities it offers to immigrants, and he dwelt upon similar opportunities afforded by ' the United States Government in former years in terms of warm commendation.