THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7988, 17 March 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1906.

For years past, Greek journalists have been raising their voices against the ever-increasing emigration of their countrymen. A journey through any part of Greece will show that from every town and village a greater or lesser number of youths are absent. Some have gone to the Oape or Australia, others to Khartoum or Canada; but though it has been aorrectly said that wherever sparrows are to be found there Greeks will be found too, yet the greater number by far are in the United States of America. When it is taken into consideratibn that these emigrants do not consist of women and children under age—for one of the great differences betweeu Greek and Italian emigrants is that Greeks

will nevor take oat their wive 9 till they have created a position for themselves— but of youths of twenty and upwards, who are the breads winners of their families, th is is a somewhat alarmiag discovery at first sight. ***** It should be borne in mind that Greeks do not enaigrate to Australia merely heoause they can turn their hand to anything there without loss of caste. In'fact, of the better - class Greeks who have gone to the United States few have prospered, the expeuses of living there having often absorbed all tboir earnings. Those who really find America an Ei Dorado are the peasants and the workmen. They generally share one room among five or six men, for which they pay from three to ten dolalrs, according to the town they are in. It baa been observod 6hat Greeks, however poor, preserve a greater sense of self-respeot and decency than Italians, who will often crowd together with an utter disregard of all sanitary and hygienic considerations. "Accustomed to privations, and proverbially sober, Greeks will pinch and save out of their earnings," says au English writer, "living on bread and cheese at first, and feeling quite bapDy when they can begin sending over a little money, in sums small at first, but gradually getting larger; for it is one of the finest traits of these folks that they never forget their friends at home." The first thus sent over is for their Church, and the next is invariably destined for building a house for their father, and aometimes also for releasing hi J land from debt. Only after ihia has been done wil! the emigrant begin to thiuk of setting uo in business.

Italian aud Macedonian emigrants are quite content to remain workmen all their lives, aud the latter go to America to create for themselves a home, where they may live free from Turkish ODpression. Though they may be compelled to start as workmen or shoeblacks, they will aoon put by enough, or be helped by their more prosperous pruutrymen, to start a small push-ear laden with fruit; but even the want of this will not. deter them, for they often begin by carrying their flowers or other goods for sale in a basket. In Chicago there are about sixtyfive thousand Greeks who went out as simple workmen, aud w h o are for the most part thriving, many of them contributing even to the defence fund of their country. But they have inauy ways of making a living. Suoh men will generally return after saving up some three hundred pounds to five hundred pouuds, a sum worth six times as much in Greece, where living is cheaper and the rate of exchange still continues high. Should the paternal estate be small, they will add to it enough to enable them to live on it in oomfort. This has caused land ail over Greece now to be worth Ave times what it was only a few years ago.

Instead of the Greeks finding fault with their countrymen for emigrating, it is the Americans who might be justified iu complaining of immigration, for they derive little, benefit from this inroad of foreigners of every nationality, who lower the wages in coal-mines, railways and factories, while spending as little as they can in the oountry that supports them. The people who benefit by this are the large owners of mills and mines. The American Government is taking steps to protect its subjeots against this competition by sending baok all those who go to the States under labour contract. On the other hand, it is said that if immigration into the States were stopped, or if there were an exodus of those already there the price of production would so greatly increase as to put America quite out of the market.