THE IMMIGRATION QUESTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13875, 8 October 1908, Page 8

THE IMMIGRATION QUESTION.

Sir, Wore the Government making any genuine effort to render the immense areas of native land' in this island available for settlement, as you so ably /urge, there would bo some reasonable excuse for attracting population from the Mother Country, and their immigration policy, however distasteful to the wage-earners, would be more endurable. But the fact that * all. kinds 61 flimsy excuses are offered for keeping large tracts of fertile land locked up leads to tho conclusion that assisted, immigration has for its object what: under '- the circumstances must be its logical result: that is. the glutting of the labour market and the forcing down of" wages. To hasten this desirable condition, a gorgeous Salvation Army official now comes forward to offer as a share of tne good things his organisation lias - hitherto bestowed on Canada, in the shape of the unfortunate derelicts of Britain. That these natural but much-to-be-pitied products of duopoly and competition cannot help their misfortune is not the point. What the workers and ratepayers of Now Zealand have to consider is: How will we bo affected by entrusting a religious body with such an important .function as tli:ifc_ of selecting immigrant!;? If our own paid officers do their work so badly that consumptives and lunatics are brought out at the public expense, what can be expected from the short-sighted philanthropy which hopes to cure the evil results of, bad social conditions 'by moving some of these _ results t elsewhere? Evidently the Canadian authorities have had nearly enough of this policy, or the "Colonel's" organisation would hardlv need to scour the world for new dumping-grounds. Whatever view the Canadian Government may hold, however, it is certain • that: the workers have had more than sufficient, for in an EnglislT newspaper, which reached 1110 recently, a, letter from an emigrant was published, complaining bitterly of the evil results of the excessive influx, largely promoted. by the Salvation and Church Armies- in the Old Country. Wages in most industries had declined from 25 to 30 per cent., and in almost every city there were numbers of starving unemployed. If these results are so soon achieved in an immense country such as Sir Wilfred Laurier presides over, how long will a small country stand the strain? As for the unemployed themselves, they carujot after all be benefited very much by changing their location and helping to bring about in new countries the ovils that drivo them from the old. Thames. . Worker.

Sir,— the Herald you published an account of Colonel Hammond's proposals in connection with tho Salvation Army's immigration scheme. Colonel Hammond, I am afraid, does not know the condition of either New Zealand or Australia at the present time, as to the conditions of the labour market. There are hundreds of bonafido workers in the Dominion at the present time unemployed, with no prospects of obtaining work. Look what, they have done (tho Salvation Army) for Canada. ' Out of tho thousands they have taken there how many have been classed as undesirables? A good number. The Salvation Army were getting so much on every adult they took there, and hence the immigration scheme. Neither Australia nor Now Zealand wants to-bo ruined by being the dumping ground of Great Britain. What New Zealand wants at present is capital, not labour. L. J. Taylor.