ADVERTISING THE COLONIES.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1030, 27 November 1891, Page 25

ADVERTISING THE COLONIES.

New Zealand is getting into bad odour in England just now with the severe criticism on its financial position, and present Government policy. A blow is given to the prospects of attracting men with money to settle here, and it will be a matter of time to overcome the bad impression made. It has been often advocated in these columns that we do not advertise the resources of this colony sufficiently at Home. To the great majority of English people New Zealand is only the name of a faroff country from whence they get frozen mutton. That it can produce anything else beyond sheep does not enter into their thoughts. It is rather humilitating to the well-wishers of the colony that bo little is known of one of the finest countries on the face of the globe. There is in this colony all the possibilities of forming comfortable homes with comfortable incomes for a very large population. There are plenty of people with money who would gladly drift to these shores did they know anything about them. The pressure of intense population in Great Britain is slowly but Burely squeezing a certain proportion over its borders. They have to find a footing somewhere, and naturally, they turn their faces to the countries best known to them. The United States and Canada in particular are glad to accept every man they can get hold of, especially if he comes to them with the where withal to settle down and become a citizen of those countries. They strain every effort to secure him, with the result that there is a steady inflow of bone, muscle, and capital into those countries. This colony can offer as great, if not greater attractions to the bulk of British emigrants than the American continent car. There is soil as good, a climate that is better, the same manners, customs, and social conveniences—but alts, New Zealand is an unknown oountry. Its rulers instead of attracting settlers seem to work with the object of repelling thpm. The Canadian government are fully alive to the fact that their greatgwant is population. They have vast resources and only a handful ot people to develope them. Every new arrival means an extra source ot wealth to the country. To gain these people they strain every nerve, they advertise their lands, their soil, their capabilities broadcast over Great Britian, with the result that Canada and her resources

are familiar words from one end of the mother country to the other, while New Zealand is riot heard of. The latest, form of advertising initiated by Canada is got up by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company who are preparing a large number of vans to be drawn by one or two horses to tour the whole of the United Kingdom. These vans are of elaborate build, designed to afford a practical exposition of the advantages the emigrant may expect to reap by a transference of bis quarters to the fertile territories ot the Manitoba and other parts of the Dominion. The sides of the vans are of glass, and behind are displayed various articles, as in a shop window. At the corners are samples of grain in cases, and all kinds of fruit in bottles, from Montreal, the Canadian North-West;, and British Columbia. Minerals from Ontario and Quebec occupy the foreground in the centre of each, flanked by pictures of Canadian farm life, and backed by two hugh photographs of ‘Harvesting in Manitoba’ and ‘ The Eraser Canon ’ respectively. Inscriptions on the exterior woodwork of the van point out the fact that 160 acres of land are given free to colonists, and that there are 200 million acres from which to choose. The fine quality of the grain and fruit caunot fail* powerfully to impress the farmers whom the van is intended to influence, and the pamphlets which will be'distributed by the company’s emigration agent, Mr Baslett, will complot the forcibleness of this direct appeal.