IMMIGRANT'S COMPLAINT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18020, 20 February 1922, Page 8

IMMIGRANT'S COMPLAINT.

HIGH COMMISSIONER'S OFFICE

NO HELP FOR SETTLERS. A correspondent to the Christchurch Press, referring to the recent discussion in Parliament on the High Commissioner, rolates that he had recently met a young man just arrived from England. He was to all appearances, a most desirable type of settlor. He had farming experience, capital, and youth. But his complaint was that he could get absolutely no information at the High Commissioner's office in London about this country. Nobody on the staff knew where the sheep country was or where the wheat land T ae ' «Ho liad caIle(1 sevoral times at the office, and the impression he formed was that the staff of clerks, comprised entirely of English-bred people, imagined that New Zealand was purely a fascinating tourist resort. Thev could give helpful information about the tariff of leading hotels in Wellington, 20s to 30s ft day, but knew nothing about rates of hotels that would suit the ordinary individual coming out hero to settle. He enumerates the compaints as follows :—

No general useful information for prospective settlers. No information about climate in various parts of the country, No definite information whero to settle for dairying, sheep-breeding, etc. No information about prices of stock, woo], produce, etc., in New Zealand. No information about the cost of raising crops, etc, - No information about names and charges at hotels or boarding houses suitable for intending settlers. Everybody in the, office," he says, "seems to be a clerk who pushes the awkward inquirer quite nicely on to the next fellow. They have not seen, nor do they appear to take any interest in. New Zealand. They gco this country through tourists' spectacles—.snow-capped mountains, boiling springs, fishing paradises."