The Westport Times. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1870.

Westport Times, Volume IV, Issue 679, 2 July 1870, Page 2

The Westport Times. SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1870.

Although the tone of the discussions, on the subject of Immigration, had fully prepared the public for the matter being treated as a Colonial question, the announcement that the Government propose to expend a million aud a half on immigration, shows an intention to deal with the question on a more comprehensive scale than can have been generally anticipated. Taking the European population, according to the Census of 1867, at 218.000. and assuming that the voted to paying the passage of immigrants to the Colony, it would appear that it is intended, in round numbers, to introduce an increased population of 100,000 persons. The work, although essentially a reproductive one, and affording in the increased revenue, that such an addition to the population of the Colony would necessarily bring, a sufficient guarantee that a large expenditure would be more than returned to the country by the beneficial occupationof lands, now lying waste, and the immense impetus the providing for such a number would give to commerce, may, nevertheless, operate prejudicially upon the laboring classes. A tide of immigrants such as proposed, even though most judiciously selected, must tend to a severe competition with all classes of labor in this country, unless they become gradually absorbed into the population. No doubt, by extending operations over several years, and by the initiation of extensive public work% as proposed, a field for their labor and settlement may be opened at one and the same time, and by these means the undue competition ot'labor, that would otherwise take place, may be considerably reduced, if not entirely averted. Victorian experience shows that public opinion against assisted immigration is steadily gaining ground ; the majority of the people, viz., the laboring class, embracing skilled and unskilled labor, feel that the Government have no right to levy taxes for the purpose of introducing a population who must be provided for at the expense of this class. The circumstances of the case, however, differ in this respect—that while Victoria is undertaking no public works of a magnitude that would justify an extensive system of State aid to immigrants, in New Zealand the proposed large expenditure on railways, and the extensive tracts of country that will thereby become available for settlement remove to a great extent the objectionable features of the scheme.

Though maintained by the UltraProvincial party, that a Central Government could never have effected what has been accomplished by the Provincial Governments, whose special function it is eontended to have beeu to introduce population and settle the country, there can be no doubt that the altered circumstances of the Colony render it desirable that the work should be taken in hand by a Central Government rather than by the Provinces. The isolated position of the various settlements having, in a great measure, passed away, the past offers no basis for grounding an argument in favor of leaving the handling of this important subject to the disconnected efforts of the various Provincial Governments. The matter will certainly bo treated as a Colonial question in a wiser and better spirit and also more economically. The discussion which has been going on in various parts of the Colony, between employers, dis-

satisfied with the price of labor, and the laborers who find difficulty in obtaining steady and remunerative employment, shows the impropriety of entrusting the direction of this important master to local bodies who may be easily swayed to consider chiefly the interests of the class to which they themselves belong. In consequence of this defect the efforts to introduce immigrants have been chiefly of a one-sided nature, and the employers of certain classes of labor have enjoyed a State protection at the expense of the rest of the community. In the proposed alteration this abuse is more likely to be avoided and the work impartially and adequately dealt with.