MR ATKINSON ON IMMIGRATION.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2119, 19 October 1875, Page 3

MR ATKINSON ON IMMIGRATION.

To the Editor, of the Evksino- Sxa*.

Sir,—Mr Atkinson as proof of the success of immigration, stated "for the last three winters there was no cry out of the want of work." I really feel on reading that statement that "man is the strangest of. all strange creatures " —another unknown—for, in the same speech he also alludes to a meeting having taken place from the so-called unemployed, and I need only turn to your columns of the 13th to see a leader showing what a pretty state of things is here. Also our respected Mayor brings his testimony to bear to show there is very little work and. any amount of labor,- for he states he is forced to discharge old hands because he must give men a turn, yet with all this, and much more that Mr Atkinson and the Ministry -know, he will persist in stating the Public Works and Immiferati(» Scbeme is a success. Periaps, sir,l might consider the scheme a success, however unjust, did.l borrow a few hundred, thousand pounds, or millions, on condition I brought a lot of men to pay the debt off, and have nothing to <jlo but spend the money myself and no personal responsibility to pay it back^again, and leave the the men to find work the best way they can, and pay it back themselves.- Sir, did I induce men to come here with the hope that they were going to leave tbe-grinding misery of home behind them, and then employ them only on the above terms, what would you consider me? And yet, in plain English, as I can prove from the Parliamentary Reports, this is all that men are brought out here for ; for, withall the high wages that have been going down South, the provisions, house rent,-and fuel are higher in proportion to the wage--, and as each.vessel arrives it brings down the wages and raises the pritfe of provisions, so that instead of a laboring man being any better off here than at home, he is, if anything, far worse, unless he has means to keep him when he is out of work. Did space permit I could give extracts from speeches made in Parliament which would prove it is intended the few shall make their fortune at the expense of the majority. In fact, sir, the country has been governed on the principle of " every man for himself, and the devil take thehindmost," for I recollect about ten years ago Colonel Haultain, Defence Minister, giving that answer to a petition, and the same principle seems to have been adopted by all in power since.—l am, &c,

Pbo Bono Publtco