IMMIGRATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 1031, 2 September 1871, Page 1

IMMIGRATION.

L I f The whole correspondence relating to (■ Immigration, which has passed between •' the General Government and the Super- * intendents of the different provinces since last session of Parliament, has . been printed and presented to both -, Houses of the General Assembly. , Upon referring to the letters which . have passed between the Government , and the Superintendent of Otago, we \ find ourselves unable to congratulate, the province upon the result of these ( communications. The iir^t in point of date is one from the Superintendent to < the Hon. Mr Vogi:l, dated 19th Do- ■( cember, 1870, in which His Honour ; transmits copy of a Memorandum on . the subject of immigration to this pro- . vince, submitted by him to the Exc- , eutive, with the deliverance of that ' body thereupon. The substance of ] this Memorandum, it will be re- ( me inhered, His Honour made known j when addressing the electors of Dime- , din as a candidate for the Superin- ] tendency, in the early part of the year. 1 By it, he proposed that, in terms of , the Immigration and Public Works ■ Act, IS7O, the Governor should be re- 1 quested to provide for the selection and . transport of certain immigrants, the , description and numbers of which were , , added. These included families from Orkney and Shetland, coal-miners from Lanarkshire, Staffordshire, and South Wales, miners from Cornwall, families from Norway and Sweden, families from British North America, flannelmakers from Wales, stocking-makers from Nottinghamshire ; besides single women from Germany, domestic servants from the United .Kingdom, ploughmen, labourers, and dairy women. In addition to these, numbering some six thousand persons, he proposed that provision should be made for the introduction of six thousand men, women, and children, to be nor>' : \'\^|j "md assisted by friends resident in the province. The Executive decided that, in the face of the resolutions of the Provincial Council regarding the General Government policy, it was inexpedient to entertain the question at that time. Mr Vogel, who was then in Dunedin, in reply, expressed himself as being greatly interested in the Memorandum, and regretted that the Executive had not been able to consider it, except by the light of the resolutions passed by the Provincial Council. He pointed out to His Honour that the Government could not take his proposal into consideration, as the Act made it imperative that ■where an Executive existed, the Superintendent should act with their advice. When the Cakcill Executive took office, the Superintendent a gain brought forward tin- subject of Jinmigr.Hion, and in May he wrote the Colonial Secretary, enclosing an extract from the minutes of the Executhe, expressing a, wish that the General Govern mentshould provide, in terms of the Immigration and Public Works Act, for the transport to this province of such immigrants from Europe as may obtain passage orders issued upon the application of friends in the province, or as may be selected by the agents of the Provincial Government in Europe. The Executive also resolved that the assistance of the Agent-General of the colony bo requested towards the promotion of a special settlement on Stewart Island, by the introduction of families from the North of Scotland, and from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, on certain conditions ; also that the assistance of the Agent-General be requested in promoting special settlements of congeries of families engaged in particular industries. A few weeks later, Mr Dillox Bell replied, stating that with reference to the proposals on the subject of immigration and the formation of special settlements, the Government would corditUlv assist in

giving them practical effect ; but he pointed out that in the case of the special settlements, it would be necessary, fii-st, that the Provincial Council should concur with the Superintendent in setting aside suitable lands ; and secondly, that the conditions of settlement should be clearly set. foith. He also promised on behalf of the Government, that if the conditions were, approved of, the Agent-General would assist in carrying out the object of the proposals. Acting upon this suggestion, it may be supposed, the Superintendent, in a message to the Provincial Council, solicited the concurrence of that body in an application to the General Assembly, to the effect that the -whole of Stewart Island, and 100,000 acres in the Catlin's River and Waikava Districts might be set apart, and brought under the provisions of the Otago Settlements Act. lSfiO. The recommendation contained in the message was approved of by the Conncil, and Hi* Honour was requested to introduce a Bill into the. Assembly to give effect to it. So far as the question of the establishment of special settlements therefore is concerned, the Council may be said to have done its duty. It remains to be seen whether advantage -was taken of all the opportunities winch were presented of benefiting the province by the introduction of immigrants. One other letter we must refer to, in which the Superintendent requested that the sum of £0004 7s Gd, which had boon paid by the Provincial Government towards the passage of immigrants since the passing of the Immigration and Public Works Act, might l>e refunded out of the Loan and charged against the province, as prescribed by the Act. The Colonial Secretary informed His Honour, in reply, that the Government had no power to pay the amount under the Act, but that an appropriation of money will be proposed during the session of the Assembly, with a -view to the amount being repaid to the province, and charged as a "payment on account of immigration. The latest letter bears the date of 19th July, and in it Mr Gisborxe reminded the Superintendent that the regulations for nominated immigration, as well as that for the contemplated special settlements, require to be submitted for His Excellency's approval. He at the same time enclosed copies' of the regulations already gazetted for nominated immigration into the provinces of Wellington, Hawke's Bay, and Canterbury. We must defer to another occasion the consideration of those regulations, as well as of the course of procedure with reference to immigration which has been followed by Ihe other pnnuu'es since their respeHi\e Governments haM* been in comnmnie ilion with the Ministry on the .subject. • «o» .

ii. Lx no Province does there appeal 1 to have been evinced so earnest a desire to promote immigration, by taking advantage- of the provisions of the Colonial Act, as in the Province of Wellington. One of the first steps which Dr Fkatkkrstox took after his return from England was to request the General Government to make 1 immediate arrangements for the establishment of a system of assisted immigration to the L'rovince in accordance with the terms of the Act. No definite arrangement seems to have resulted from this communication. But Dr Fkathekstox's - successor did not allow the matter to rest, as we find Mr FrrziirjKßKKT, shortly after he had taken office, renewing negotiations with the Government i upon the subject. Following up the ; request which had been made by his . predecessor, he asked on behalf of the ■ Provincial authorities that steps should ■ be taken to introduce the following classes i of immigrants during the ensuing

twelve months — (1) 500 labourers, with their wives antl families ; (2) 500 unmarried females ; (3) 400 nominated immigrants ; (4:) 100 Scandinavian families; (5) and a number of labourers skilled in certain manufactures. With regard to the introduction of classes Nos. 2, 3, and o, the General Government assented to the necessary arrangements being made, and the regulations for nominated immigrants were at once gazetted. The leading feature^ of those regulations are, that each applicant in the province will be required to pay the sum of £o for each adult at the time of making the application, and .£2 10s for each child between the age-> of one ;md twelve years. Passages for unmarried females under the regulations only to l>e granted subject to the Agent-General at home being aide to make suitable provision for oversight during the voyage. hi

the case of a person applied for declining to emigrate, the deposit money will be returned to the applicant, but where a person applied for accepts the offer of a passage and fails to present himself at the proper time the passage money will lie forfeited. The Agent-General to have power to refuse passages where the intending emigrants are in ill health, or in any wav unfitted, according to his judgment, to undertake the voyage. "We mention the substance of the Wellington regulations, because copies of them have been forwarded hv the Colonial Secretary t ( >

several of the Pr<>\ incial Governments, with an intimation that they should serve a-s a kind of model for any which should hereafter be framed. Indeed in one instance — to the Superintendent of Hawke's Bay — Mr ( » isbokxk goes somewhat further, when he writes ' without seeking unduly to control the action of individual Provinces, the Go\ eminent nevertheless desire to adopt as uniform a .system as circumstances will permit, and [ enclose for your information the regulations which have been issue d for the Province o "Wellington in reference to nominated immigrants'.' As it is probable that the Legislature will decide that there should be one uniform set of regulations for the introduction of this class of immigrants to the colony, we may fairly conclude that the Government will put forward the Wellington system for adoption. As regards classes 1 and i, the labourers and the (Scandinavian families, for whose introduction the Superintendent of Wellington requested the General Government to make the necessary arrangements, the Colonial Secretary intimated that no steps could be taken to introduce those immigrant* j until provision were made for their settlement on the land. IFe callt d upon the Provincial authorities to furnish the (ro\ eminent with plans ol block-> of laud reser\i'd in the "\i<-ini(\ of the public roads in progress within the Pro\ iiur, together with a scheme of regulations, to bo agreed to by the Provincial and General Government, for the settlement thereon of the immigrants. In obedience to the request, the Provincial Council, before which the correspondence was laid, passed two resolutions ; in the one instance, affirming the desirability of empowering the Provincial Government to set apart blocks of land, and to sell the same on deferred payments ; and in the other, affirming the expediency of granting to the Provincial Government fuller powers to set apart land for special settlement. In forwarding copies of these resolutions to the Colonial Secretary, the Superintendent informed him that it is the intention of the Provincial Government, so soou as the resolutions have been legalised, and the construction of any of the proposed lines of railway within the province assented to by the General Assembly, to lav oft" reserves abutting upon, these lines, at certain intervals, sufficient for the locution of a large 1 number of immigrants. Upon receipt

of this connmuiiciition, the Colonial Secretary at once wrote the AgentGeneral, enclosing copies of the correspondence -which had passed between the Superintendent of "Wellington and the General Government, and instructed him to carry into effect the request of the Superintendent relative to the two classes of immigrants (1 and 4), but to extend their arrival over a period of two years instead of one, as originally proposed. As the reason for conveying this instruction to the AgentGeneral, he writes that the Government and Provincial Council of "Wellington have given practical evidence that they are anxious to mark out sites for the settlement of the immigrants. The result of this attention to the interests of their own province on the part of the Wellington authorities has been that Avithout spending or proposing to spend a, farthing of provincial revenue they have made arrangements for the introduction within the next two years of some two or three thousand .suitable immigrants. In marked contrast to this wise action on the part of the Wellington Provincial authorities is the obstinate course taken by our own ProM'ncial Council during last session, when, in spite of the warning given by Mr Dillon Bell that the General Government would not hand over to Provincial Councils the control of immigration under the

Colonial Act, it was resolved that the General Assembly should be requested to place an equitable sum for immigration purposes at the disposal of "the pnnince. No practical steps have yet been taken to introduce immigrants to Otago under the Act, and we shall not be surprised if, by the time the Supeiintendent and Executive have agreed as to ihe course of action to be taken for so desirable an object, the first shipload of immigrants selected under the auspices of the Agent-General will have arrived in the colony.