AN IMMIGRANT’S LAMENT,

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6622, 11 September 1908, Page 2

AN IMMIGRANT’S LAMENT,

"KEEP AWAY FROM NEW ZEALAND. ANGRY ABUSE. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, duly 2L _, \ scurrilous attack on New Z S'l“!l.dnv made. bv a writer m ’Cassell s ...xtU ' J .lom-mil" of duly 18. It is oxtiaordmais inking file trouljlo to verify or rein.to any of the wild statements mad«W vicw C o£ journalism" and'its inUuenco. The erablh harm to the credit ot the Dommion amongst a large number of English readers, whoso knowledge o. tlie Butu I dominions overseas is hazy enough at Uio best of times. It is to be hoped that the High Commissioner will take tho matter up and induce lie editor ot “('•l c is£‘l^s ,, to put tho real tacts of the case about New Zealand before his readers. Unfortunately the mischief nill have been already done, and for every ten who read tho original article only one is likely to road the rep y. The article i.s headed "Keep Away from New Zealand!" and the sub-title is— If roll Contemplate Emigrating: Iherc. Read •These Amazing Facts from One lias Tried It.” It opens in this Fashion At. keep away- from New Zealand. Plum the country as you would a plague. That is, unless you have ■ spare money you would like to dispense with for the benefit ot the people struggling to live in tho colony. If you haven’t any money at all you're not wanted out there. The Government won t have you at any price. In iact, they don t want any emigrants from tins country, Biit they want their money. Ive been there, and I know.

The -writer goes on to give his Idea of farming in Now Zealand; “Go lo Now Zealand with the idea of first learning farming, and thou storting on your own account, and see how long [ it will take von to find a tanner to employ von at the meanest living wage. You won’t find one. .The average Now Zealand farmer has all his work done bv his family—if he has one. If lie has not. he struggles to attend to everything himself. “And it is the same story, ho continued. “in nearly every walk of hlc over there. No matter what trade you are prepared to follow, no matter how skilful you may he in that trade, no matter what capital you may possess, it will bo the same. A hard, hard struggle with, at the best, a barely .sufficient income after it aft—at the worst, an ignominious return to tho old country, or an early death.” Alter this doleful picture of ship-load after ship-load of immigrants living in dire poverty, or dying of exhaustion, or lleeing the country, he proceeds to hint ■orkly that the suicide returns in New Zealand are so high that the Press may presently be induced to hush them up. “There arc whispers” of attempts in this direction. A failure himself, he declares that “hundreds, nay thousands of others uverv year ajre foiling as I failed. The fault does not lie with them. Tho openings they go to seek are not there.” The | remainder of the article may be left to It 11 its own lugubrious tale:— “Consider the cost of living in Now Zealand,” says the writer, “and remember, when you do so, that .the wages promised the emigrant, on this side are l.ir (litrerout from what are offered in tho colony. You may hoar of jobs at eight shillings a day before you start on the long voyage, but you will find that the wage has dwindled while you have bean ou the water to three or four shillings a day.

“And the Trade Unions have control of nearly all employment not under Government, and a master is rarely able to please himself in employing his men. Then there is the 'pace' set iu most workshops. The average English mechanic is taught to make his work solid, tho colonial man aims at getting it done iu tho shortest possible tiniov Tho effect is that, although doing infinitely better work than the old hands, the skilled new. comer is rarely able to keep up the 'pace' of tho oilier hands, with tho inevitable result that he is fired out. The Trade Unions may, and do, set the standard of wages iu some eases at eight or even ton shillings a day, but they* also set the ‘pace’—and tho ‘pace’ to a good workman is an abomination. “Nor does the man who has even a substantial capital fare much better. The skilled farmer who knows farming, and is willing to spend a little money on a venture in New Zealand, will not find land waiting for him. I should think there are about eight times as many applications made for allotments ns there arc allotments to bo had. And every applicant for land is obliged to hand over a deposit before he hears tho result of the distribution.

"Even the man who obtains land from the Government will find many trials awaiting him. Unless he is particularly well-favoured he is likely to have to take over a farm situated many miles from any town, and his profits will be swallowed tip in increased cost of living and expense incurred in sending his produce to market.

“Xo. Xow Zealand won't help you to a living even."