The Promised Land

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVI, Issue 21380, 24 June 1939, Page 8

The Promised Land

|?VEN though the Government has not sponsored " an official immigration scheme, there appears to be no shortage of immigrants according to a statement made by Captain Davy, master of the Awatea. Captain Davy complains that stowaways are coming from Australia to New Zealand “in droves,” and he considers that the popularity of this form of trans-Tasman travel is due to the fact that stowaways are not treated severely enough by the courts. The other, and probably the chief reason, is that reports have gone overseas about New Zealand being “a land of milk and honey.” Further, Captain Davy stated with nautical directness, “nobody works in this blasted country. That is why four stowaways arrived to-day by the Awatea.”

Captain Davy, because of his unhappy experience with these unofficial immigrants, may not be the best critic of social conditions in the Dominion. The unfortunate (ruth is (hat many people have to work in New Zealand; thousands upon thousands of them are subjected daily to what some of Captain Davy’s “tourists” may probably regard as the ignominy of labour, so those who come to New Zealand believing that the country can be likened to those lovely Pacific islands upon which no man need toil are going to be seriously disappointed. Again, their labour is likely to begin in uncongenial surroundings even though the term for it is shorter than Captain Davy would wish. New Zealand’s present popularity may be accounted for in part by (he garbled reports which have gone abroad about maximum wages for minimum work. Or it may be that (he Tourist ami Publicity Department is putting out much too effective propaganda. On the whole, (hough, the most probable explanation is the old one that distant fields are green. This illusion has been the cause of much migration in the past and it is not likely to cease being the cause of migration today. In any case (he appetite for travel is great and some venturesome men will not let empty pockets stand in the way of its gratification. A captain's wrath may even spice the adventure.