NEW LINE OF STEAMERS

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11415, 11 January 1923, Page 2

NEW LINE OF STEAMERS

ITALIANS LOR AUSTRALIA. NOT COMING TO NEW ZEALAND. The establishment of a new line of steamers to link up an Australian service with Italy with the view of inducing Italian settlement, is at present under discussion by two large shipping companies in Italy, the Lloyd Sabaudo Line and the Navigazione Generale Italians, and negotiations are now being made by the two companies for a joint service to Australian ports. In connection with the question of Italian Immigration, Cavaliere Del’Oro recently visited Australia at the instigation of his department, the Bureau of Immigration, to go into the question of the settlement of Italians, and the conditions under which they worked, and the formation of the new company, which will he engaged in the transport of immigrants and Italian goods is now being discussed.

The possibility of Italian immigration to New Zealand was referred to Cavaliere DeTOro by a "Times” reporter who interviewed him upon this matter, but he ecouted the idea. “New Zealand,” he said, "is too far away for the Italians, they do not desire to venture so far, while Australia offers better facilities.” Continuing, Mr DeTOro said that the majority of the Italians settled in Australia were engaged in the sugar fields of Queensland, where the climatio conditions were more suited to them, and where they had more possibilities of taking up land than in New Zealand. He did not think that there would be a big influx of' Italians to Australia, while to New Zealand there would be few, if any.

He explained that the Bureau of Immigration, which he represented, had established schools of instruction in the principal cities of Italy, where tuition in agricultural work was given, which was available to any who desired to take up that vocation. At the present time the classes were largely attended by men desiring to take up pastoral work, with th# view of immigrating, and Although America was claiming ‘the majority of these new settlors there should he, he thought, great inducement for them to settle in Australia.