FOREIGN GUMDIGGERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12269, 13 May 1903, Page 6

FOREIGN GUMDIGGERS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln reply to Mr. B. Bailey's letter respecting the large influx of diggers from Dalmatia, Roumania and other parts adjoining, the question arises: Why should our gumfields be worked out by other than British colonists, who have been taxed for many years to purchase the land ? They would not tolerate such intrusion into the industries of their own countries, as the Wowing declaration by the, Roumanian Mi lister in London shows:—"His Excellency enumerated the various laws relating to >..li«ms, which, he repeated, were in no way framed against the Jews, but affected all foreigners alike. Such a law was that no foreigner could buy land in Roumania. and there were also laws to prevent foreign artisans from competing in an unfair way with Roumanian workmen. These laws were absolutely necessary for the protection of his countrymen, who had bought their independence with the sword, and had a right to manage their own economic affairs according to their requirements." The •lost census should give the correct number of Austrian or foreign gumdiggers, which has been estimated at 10,000. It is a question that could not be considered, to enfranchise a number of foreign, unsettled diggers, with distinctly foreign national opinions. " The Austrian loves his country," to which they will mostly return, but he has no such love for the British Empire, which we desire to preserve intact. During the Boer war the wishes of the foreign element mostly favoured the Boors. The question of the franchise in the Transvaal was not the cause of the war, but grievances of many years' standing. I* was a race war to oppress the British, and, so, the rebellion in Cape Colony. —l am, etc., Edward 0. Henley. May 11, 1903.