New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4134, 20 June 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JUNE 20, 1874.

In another column wo print a copy of a circular letter which has been sent by the Minister for Immigration to the Superintendents of the several Provinces, relative to the providing of temporary homos for immigrants who may desire to settle, not in the cities of the seaboard or their suburbs, but in less frequented parts of the country, where the absence of house accommodation is tho main obstacle to settlement. The offer thus made to Superintendents of assistance from the Government in tho building of huts or cottages for immigrant families is one which will recommend itself by its forethought and wisdom, and which, if properly estimated by Provincial authorities, should not bo noglectod. Ono important object in connection with immigration and tho settlement of the country should bo to present inducements to new arrivals to betake themselves, not to tho humble buildings of tho by-ways of tho towns in which they happen to laud, but to tho inland districts, where they may become truly pioneers of settle-

mont and the nucleus of now communities. In the arrangements made by the American Government for tho influx of immigrants, a guiding principle is to expedite tho transmission of the new arrivals as speedily and economically as possible towards the Far West. That, at least, is the principle indicated by the authorities in tho existence and practice of the extensive immigration depot at Castle Gardens, though tho practice may fall short of the principle through the jobbery of oflicials and the propensity of railway companies to pay more attention to profits than to the interests of immigrants. Here we have no such extensive stretch of country over which to convey our immigrants ; still, there is necessity for some portion of the cost of their conveyance to the interior or secluded situations on tho seaboard being borne by the Government, and much more necessity is there for assistance being given them, by advances or otherwise, in the preliminary work of placing a roof above their heads. In an especial degree does this necessity exist in the Provinces to which tho larger numbers of immigrants are now proceeding. On tho plains of Canterbury or the downs of Otago there is no such supply of timber as that which tho bushmon of Canada or the Northern States, like our own West Coast diggers, can so readily convert into a sufficiently comfortable hut, and tho immigrants’ only alternative is to substitute the sod hut or the toi-toi whare, or practise their prentice hands in wattle-and-dab. To be able to obtain, without immediate outlay or upon terras which would not bo exorbitant, a plainly constructed cottage of weather-boards or slabs, would to the settler be an immense convenience, and their aggregate cost to tho several Governments could not be great, nor is it an outlay which would bo irrecoverable, or partake of an eleemosynary character. Tho cottages would, in fact, form so many separate, or, as tho Scotch call them, “ selfcontained ” depots, infinitely more useful and more appropriate to tho requirements of the country and the settler than tho more magnificent city barracks. Some of the buildings proposed to be erected are, in fact, to be used as depots for casual use in the country districts—institutions the advantage of which has already been shown in several of the Provinces, by the fact that, while tho barracks in the cities are now occupied for some time by immigrants, the immigrants who proceed to the country districts are, even at this season of tho year, finding ready and remunerative employment. We are not informed whether as yet there has been time for replies from the different Provinces, but there can be little doubt that if tho Superintendents consider themselves authorised to do so, they will take advantage of tho offer of the Minister for Immigration, and supply what is an obvious desideratum in connection with tho arrangements for the reception of immigrants and their settlement in localities where their labor can be employed to the greatest advantage for themselves and tho country.