MORE IMMIGRANTS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 6749, 22 February 1909, Page 7

MORE IMMIGRANTS

WHY DO THEY COME ? HARD TIMES IN OTHER LANDS. Over seven hundred hopeful people looked esgeriv over the Arhenic’s rail as tlie lug steamer berthed on Saturday aileriioon. There were people ushcre. to welcome them, anu some to whom their appearance in an overstocked labourmarket was decidedly unwelcome. Uhy tlo these iminigraum arrive in a slack time, making our troubles wor.r,? asks the town artisan. Tho immigrant can only say he is glad to be in New Zealand, because things are. dreadfully had for tile working man in tii-i Old Laud. It cannot be denied that the unemployed here arc well fed and healthy; Now Zeahmd nas kept clear of soup kitchens for many a year, .ut a fiiam statement of the miseries undergone by thousands of English unemployed would scarcely be credited in prosperous New Zealand, The out-of-work Here wil be glad to know- that when a “New-Zealand Times" represeutativo moved around among the Atfiicnio’s immigrants, the men with farming tastes predominated to such an extent that it required a. search before some towui . artisans w-ere discovered. Were they fed to believe that this was a golden shore? No, they admitted having read that only farmers, preferably those with capital, were recommended to go to New Zealand. One of them, a curxienter, had read letters in Due English papers warning his class against emigrating. “But is trade really' bait?” he asked the “Timeo" man. “We know all about those letters !" When a man is threatened with starvation, and lie has the price of a passage abroad for himself and family, he prefers roughing things In a strange country. “Hope spring; eternal in the human breast.” There is certainty of difficulty and misery at Home, but the colonies give promise of at least sometiling better,' and who can deny it to these immigrants? They are evidently suspicious of all advice which discounts their chances in the new land. A “LIVING WAGE” AT HOME.

One of the young women spoke of her prospects in tho strange country, “eo iike Jlent," to which she had come. She thought, herself luckier than most girls when 6iie v got a situation in England for five shillings a week and her food. In New Zealand she was,. she delightedly explained, going to get £3 a month for a stare, ad quite a number of evenings off in the month. All this was fixed up before she had been ashore.

Another case, that of a young fellow .of about twenty/.vividly suggeststhe reason why, in spit© of warnings, English artisans turn hopefully to -New ; Zealand. As a boy. he got fourteen shillings a week in a London dairy, working long hours on his milk run. It cost him 12s Gd- a week to live, so that he had eighteenpence which he could save for, clothing and luxuries—if there was anything left' foy the latter!. Four years' service saw his wages increased to 21s. per week, “but it was riot a good living," tie added, seriously, as if this opinion required some amount of emphasis to be believed. Fortunately he has a knowledge of cow-koeping, and will probably soon be. saving m. New Zealand more than he earned in England. His father has come out to settle, bringing a large and healthy family. ; “BRITISHERS NOT WANTED." South Africa contributes a quota to almost every .batch of New Zealand imi migrants, and these arrivals speak respemdentiy of the position'there. About thirty caiao iii the Tongariro yesterday; They ar* mostly of the clacs which ! finds occupation oh the land, and all agree in giving youth Africa a bad name. ‘‘it’s no Britisher's country uow," was, the general complaint. Retrenchment oi a most severe, nature' had been going on in tho Government'service, but the Dutch had complete power and were giving preference to their kin even to the extent of “retrenching" Britishers, to find a place for &■ Dutchman, they alleged. One of the ex-South Africans formerly earned 26s a day as a failway guard. He suffered badly by retrenchment, having to change to a place at 10s a day, hardly enough to live on in South Africa if a man is married f or board costs at least dBB a month. “They are helping poor whites bv trying them instead of niggers-, oh tho Belfast to Lydenberg railway extension."' continued our informant. “They get 3s 4d a day, and even a Dutchman. nnds it hard to live on that, though he and his wife are used to roughing it, and they huddle in 'a little tin shanty with their half-dozen children. British women could not do it." Another illustration of hard times in South Africa was furnished. White labour is being engaged for ordinary permanent way upkeep on the South African railways. Formerly a gang consisted .of eight niggers : and a white ‘boss, the former getting Is 6d to Is lOd per day, with allowance of 2£lbs of meal, -and & weekly ration of meat weighing 2lbs. Four whites replace the eight niggers in a gang and it costs the railways no more In wages, “Why did you select New Zealand as yodr future home?" The question was put to a group of South Africans. “Britishers are not wanted there, and you have the scum of the .earth dumped in aouth Africa," replied -one of tfie immigrants. “Yes, you'll hear more languages in Johannesburg than in any other city in the vforld," added another,' and we're glad to get to. a place where there s a chance for a Britisher among his own people." .