FREE EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 1160, 21 February 1874, Page 4

FREE EMIGRATION TO NEW ZEALAND.

The following letter from Mrs C. C. Howard, late of Dunedin, to the Editor of the Waterford Daily Mail, is published in a late issue of that journal : — 40, King street, Waterford, November 8, 1873. Sir — May I trespass on your valuable space for the purpose of explaining to your readers that the above announcement in your advertisement really means what it expresses 1 In my capacity as Agent for Free Emigration, I am assailed at all parts of your city with the enquiry, "But how long must I serve for it?" or, "How much must I sign for to repay it ?" That which has to be repaid is not a free gift ! I beg to state that the passage from London to any port in New Zealand that the emigrant desires to go to, is a free grant from the New Zealand Government, and that there is no bond, no tie, no repayment required. That the emigrants go out with the intention of working for wages, is perfectly understood in the form of application. What else is to support them ? But that they are free to choose both employer and employment on arrival in that colony, I take this opportunity of declaring, and that, when I add to this, that there is abundance of work, at good wages, plenty of food and firing at low prices, with an unrivalled climate, in a country abounding in mineral wealth and agricultural qualifications of the highest order, under the protection of the British law, and where every religious denomination has its representative clergy and privileges, I think the poor of this country should gratefully avail themselves of the liberal offer the Government of New Zealand is making to them, of free passages in good ships— well provisioned — to this "Britain of the South."

Our Agent-General has been accused cf neglecting Ireland in this matter, by wealthy settlers in the Colony who " hail from the Emerald Isle," and who read of the vast numbers who yearly flock to America, and these settlers feel assured that if these poor people were rightly advised that they would find much more prosperity awaiting them in New Zealand, the small cottier class from Ireland would find such a desirable field for their labour, where a year's wages would enable them to commence buying good w freehold land at a pound an acre. A second year's wages would stock it, and in ten years they would, by careful industry, be living in comfort and abundance on their own thriving farm, in peace and prosperity, such as they could never hope to attain in a life-time in America. If the people will emigrate, surely it is the duty of those in whom they have confidence to advise them as to the best land to try their fortunes in, and no en lightened, or well-educated person can plead ignorance to the advantages of New Zealand over any other country forthe emigrant, both in nature's, lavish gifts, and for its most genial and health-giving climate. — I am, sir, your obedient servant, Caroline Howard.