Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1899. "LITTLE NEW ZEALAND" POLICY.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8417, 17 January 1899, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JANUARY 17, 1899. "LITTLE NEW ZEALAND" POLICY.

" New Zealand for the New- Zenlandcrs" will doubtless bo the one and only defence offered for the reoenL hiyh-lianded proceedings of tbo Premier in attempting to stop the landing of Austrian immigrants, but we can hardly believe that Mr Seddon is so lacking in common sense that he would, either upon the strength of that defence or any other, issue the edict he is now reported to have done, namely, that no Austrian henceforth shall be permitted to land in New Zealand. Frankly, we do not believe that he has done so, but it does seem strange that the Union Company, acting upon his ultimatum, should have notified the North German Lloyds Company to that effect. " New Zealand for the New Zealanders" may be a very good parrot cry for the approaching elections, but it will not stand the test of logic,il examination. Jt was the cry of the warlike Maoris of the early days, who by their Woody rebellions attempted to oust the white intruder from their shores. Had it been raised by the early colonists New Zealand would to-day be poorer for the loss of the bands of industrious hardworking foreigners who came to carve out homes for themselves in the new country. To Germans in the Waimeaa, Scandinavians in the Forty Mile Bush, Austriana on the gumfiehls and vineyards of the North, and hundreds of excellent people from the continent of Europe settled in all parts of the colony, we are indebted for many splendid works of colonisation. These people have made the best of settlers, often upon the worst of land, and they have always afforded the English colonists excellent examples of industry and thrift. It does seem the height of ingratitude and the most short-sighted policy imaginable thai the door should now be ruthlessly shut in the face of the foreigners whonc brothers have done so much to make New Zealand what it is. There can be no possible reason why Austrians should be singled out for exceptional treatment. It is not as though they were low-grade Europeans, such as tho off-scourings of Italy, who flock into the United States. The Austrian visitors to New Zealand are described as decent, able-bodied, industrious men in the prime of life, and it is well-known that they belong to a race which makes first-class colonial citizens. Every such man who comes into the colony increases its wealth-producing power, and is to that extent an addition to the only tangible capital which the community possesses. The increase of immigration which Mr Seddon took credit for in his Gishorne speech was made up of two thousand Austrians who have arrived during his regime, and the Premier seemed remarkably proud of the increase, for has he not often pointed out that every unit added to the population means several hundred pounds additional capitalised wealth, and not a few pounds a year added increase to the revenue of the Colonial Exchequer ? It does therefore seem a most illogical and barbarous doctrine that whilst we have millions of acres of land yet to be settled and untold wealth to be won from the soil, we should raise this absurd cry that is utterly opposed to the true policy of colonial development-, besides being repugnant to the primary principles of international comity. The question, as has been previously pointed out, is really an international one, and we are surprised if Mr Seddon has not received a clear intimation to that effect from the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It is ,1 matter neither for the Premier nor the New Zealand Legislature, but for the Governnientof England, and it is hardly likely that Her Majesty's Advisers would be induced to give their consent to so extraordinary a policy of "closed doors" as that which the Little New Zealanders who are crying " protection to local industry" would like to see enforced.