IMMIGRATION.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 942, 21 March 1890, Page 28

IMMIGRATION.

One important question which will have to be seriously considered during the next session

of Parliament will be the Immigration question. It is patent to any careful observer that our great want at the present time is an increase of population—an increase which is to be the very life-blood of our Colony. How that increase is to be obtained in a judicious manner is a subject which will require more than ordinary attention. .. The mere matter of obtaining more people is easy enough. We could import them by shiploads, but only at our great peril. What we require is men of the right stamp, who will settle upon our lands and form the great yeomen class of the future —the* tillers of our soil, the sinew and backbone of our young nation. We must confess that this Colony has made mistakes in the past with regard to immigration, and, without enumerating such mistakes, thev must not be repeated. They were perhaps committed through an excess of ignorance combined with urgency. But now we can very well afford to dispense with both urgency and ignorance. To-day the Australasian colonies

are attracting less attention from emigrants than any other open countries. The Argentine Republic is drawing an average of 7000 per week addition to their population, whilst the United States, even now that immigration has slackened off, is receiving 10,000 new people per week, and Australasia, which is considerably larger than the United States,sweeping about forty parallels of latitude and possessing boundless tracts of productive soil and a splendid climate, only attracts a little over 1000 persons—male and female, old and young—per week. There is a screw loose in our attractive arrangements, and to tighten this " screw will require the urgent attention of the Government, to act not only with decision but with a foresight to future possibilities. In the first place, we must set our faces against any costly system of immigratio.*. We fully believe in the praclieal results of voluntary movements. We have attractions in this Colony sufficient to draw population by thousands, and it is the duty of our politicians to see that those attractions are put before the British puhlic in a practical form, and not only in Great Britain but on the continent of Europe and in the United States. The great cost of standing armies aud the restless vibrations of political strife in most of the European countries are driving people away by thousands, moat of them steady, industrious folks who would make good colonists. In America* there are thousands of young men brought up on farms in the Eastern States now looking out for land, which is difficult to find, even in the far West, where the great treeless plains are not profitable to work except by the employment of a large capital. If ourpoasibilities and capabilities were vividly shown in the Eastern Staten, there-. is no doubt that hundreds of self-reliant gc-ahead young Americans, with ample capital to stock and start moderate-sized farms and small local industries, would be attracted to this growing colony. Our land laws .are not repellant to new-comers ; we can offer the inducement of the acquiring of Crown lands on three systems, i.e., for cash, deferred-paymentrand perpetual lease. By this latter system the applicant can obtain land which secures to the lessee the value of his improvements, or an indefeasible title with perpetual rights of renewal, with all the security and permanence of freehold tenure, without requiring him to sink any capital in the purchase of the land, thus leaving his capital available for stocking and working his farm. Better inducements could scarcely be offered. We fully believe that these terms only want to be made widely known to bring forward a most desirable class of immigrants. We have room for thousands. According to the recently issued Crown Lands Guide, there will be in a few weeks’ time 930,500 acres of sur veyed land ready for selection, an area capable of supporting thousands of families. The question of how to get at the right kind of people has hitherto been a stumbling block to the country’s progress. The mere spreading abroad of literature is not sufficiently demonstrative. A new country like this may be compared with a new business firm searching for customers on new ground. The mere fact of a smart commercial traveller, silver-tongued and well dressed, does not now-a-days prove sufficiently attractive to build up a new business. He must carry samples of his wares when practicable and illustrated price-lists of bulkier articles, and it iB a question of “push, push, always push,” till the customers are secured. As with a trading firm, so with a new Colony. We have wares good enough to push before the whole world, and where there are numbers it is our own fault if we cannot Bell. This Colony should be represented in the leading cities of Great Britain, on the Continent of Europe, and in the United States by bureaus of special information. These depdts should contain iu the firßt place plain statements of the latest statistics respecting land and its products, mineral, vegetable and animal. In some cases samples should be shown, and in others suitable photographs on a large scale, so as to give the clearest possible information on all points an emigrant requires to be enlightened. These bureaus should be accessible to the public without charge, and prominently placed and advertised by showy signboard?, that all who run may read. Push and prominence are

the keynotes to success in the commercisl world, and are equally so in the advancement of a young countryj These bureaus we advocate need not be a costly scheme. They could be taken up by responsible firms, already well established in business in the older world, on a scale of commission to be derived from the sale of land and similar sources. The expense at the onset of establishing bureaus would not be alarmingly large, and wo believe the results would pay the experiment, but that experiment would have to be gone into thoroughly and systematically. Half-and-half measures would mean a failure. Our sanitoriuma alone, if properly made known to the older world, would attract a moneyed class who now seek health wandering restlessly over the pleasure-grounds of Europe. Our mineral resoutces would attract another class of capitalists now flooding America with money, simply because American attractions are brought prominently before their notice. But our wide->preading acres should be made the groundwork of any scheme of immigration. A yeoman class of settlors would provide in the future the very essence of a nation’s power. From them would spring our future manufacturers, the developers of our hiddeu wealth, and the staunch supporters of our national prestige. We need not be ashamed of offering our lands to far-away people. W ith climates ranging from the home of the myrtle and.the vine to the bracing land of the sturdy oat, we can offer attractions that no other country can. A. judicious system of advertising, such as we suggest; in tho establishment of bureaus, would, we feel certain, go a lorg way toward attracting the very class of immigrants we require.