Moneyed Immigration.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5454, 30 October 1885, Page 4

Moneyed Immigration.

• l [Bt Telegraph.] [l-ROII 008 OWN CORRESPONDENT.] AUCKLAND, Oct. 29. The Herald has taken up in a vigorous manner the question of capitalist immigration, much after the manner advocated by the Lyttelton Times. In this morning'b paper an articlo appears, from which the following passages are extracted : — " It does seem inexplicable that our statesmen, puzzling themselves and striving as they are to push on the interest of the Colony, have not realised the fact that of all possiblo ways in which public money can be expended there is nothing so reproductive as the importation of capitalist settlers. Ther? is no limit until New Zealand is as full of industrial enterprises as England, for there is nothing in England that can't be produced in New Zealand if there are only given the capital and the enterprise required and the population which such enterprise will attract. A borrowed million expended in giving free saloon passages to capitalist immigration would bring in 5000 average families at a cost of £290 a-piece, who -would swell the revenue to the extent of 16 per cont on the outlay, and, bringing an average ot only ,£2OOO each, would add .£10,000,000 sterling to the wealth of tho Colony. That money would seek investment in our city loans and harbour loans, and ovon the Colony's debentures if further loans were needed ; it would seek a share in the land, and pastoral, and mining and trading Companies, and interest and dividends would remain in the country. Why have we not these advantages; why do our statesmen refrain from doing what is so obviously for the good of the whole people ? Simply because of a stupid and ignorant idea that we have no right to pay the passage of people richer than ourselves. We refuse to recognise the adequacy of the miserable .£lO offered by Government in tho recent regulations. It will attract a class, but not the class. A man who will only travel in a first Baloon wili not be induced by a .£lO rebate on his sixty or seventy guineas, and of tho class to which .£lO will bo half the passage money we have had quite enough imported at public expense. Such a bonus will have little or no effect in diverting the stream from Manitoba of the better class of capitalist immigrant. Its effects will be nil. We have spoken of .£SO as an average at which a saloon class could be carried wholesale, if the Colony entered into such an arrangement, but experience obtained from Sir J. Vogel's experience of a year ago, in having only a single class on board, shows that everything requisite could be obtained for ,£3O or so per head. At suoh a price capitalists would be far more profitable than iron rails, and every testimony goes to show that at the cost of a suitable free passage the field of selection of the very best class of English yeomanry and others capable of developing our multitudinous resources is practically unlimited. No difficulty need attend the selection. A banker's certificate that anr applicant was bond jlde of so much capital, and that he waa taking it to tbe Colony, would bo sufficient. No banker in England will enter into collusion to deceive the Agent-General, and bonds could be obtained from the friends of such 'an applicant, to the effect that if the immigrant loft the Colony within a specified time he should repay the cost of his passage, and if within another specified time, a proportion. We observe that an idea is gaining ground that the Agent-General has, with cautious reserve, recommended something of the kind, and that Government's nibbling at tho idea, and attempting something in a half-hearted sort of way that will be of no practical result. If the thing is worth doing, it is worth doing well, and we assert that Buch a course is necessary for this Colony in its peculiar circumstances if we are to avert a moral collapse. Further, we aver it only requires that the working classes and the trading classes and property-owners clearly realise the meaning and bearing of the scheme to earnestly adopt it, and we venture to say that the politician or statesman who takes it as his platform will sweep tho country with a whirlwind of enthusiasm."