AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRANTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18016, 15 February 1922, Page 7

AUSTRALIAN IMMIGRANTS.

BONA FIDES QUESTIONED.

PSEUDO FARM LABOURERS. A. and N.Z. MELBOURNE, Fob. It.

A party of immigrants arrived in the Commonwealth liner Largs Bay. Welfare officers who interviewed them slated that some of the people secured free passages who were never entitled to them, as they had no intention of going on farms. One man was a racehorse owner, another accepted a p° sfc in t" 6 Perth UniTersifcVwhile one young lady had 70 drewes and a bag of golf sticks. The immigration authorities ridicule the statement, and explain that the officers were hoaxed.

DOUBTS CAST ON STORY.

SIR J. COOK'S OPINION. Australian and N.Z. Cable Association. (Eecd. 6.80 p.m.) LONDON. Feb. 13. Press cablegrams from Australia allege that the immigrante sent by the Largs Bay included clerks, painters, and a racehorse owner masquerading as farm laoourers, and typists and stenographers posing as domestics. Sir Joseph Cook has written to the press stating that he has not received any complaints from Australia. He believes that there is some misapprehension. J Generally speaking, he says, there is no ground for assuming the men shipped as farm labourers are likely to follow other occupations. The representations of ap- | plicants invariably are verified. A numjber of inexperienced, single, ex-service men were accepted for landwork, and it is possible that one may have taken work as a painter. Tho statement that one girl nominated for farm work is a golfer touring the j world, says Sir Joseph, ' is palpably an j ' inaccuracy, because no girls are accepted ; j for farm work, and if they are nominated j they are not required to spe< ify their oc- j cupations. Since March the Common-1 wealth Migration Department has shipped i 14,000 emigrants without a single com-j plaint. I Mr. Percy Hunter informed the Aus-1 tralian and New Zealand Press Associa-1 tion that no assisted male emigrants are accepted unless they undertake to accept work on the land. No such stipulation , is enforced in the cases of nominees, be- j cause nominators undertake to find them j employment. All statements made by applicants are verified by direct reference to their rcceut employers.