OF SCANDINAVIAN IMMIGRANTS.

17

D.—No. 3.

The charges made against them have been acknowledged by the interpreter; and as they will be employed on public works, and I have furnished Mr. Stewart at Manawatu with a copy of the authenticated account, there will be no difficulty in obtaining a refund of the advance. The mode of repayment I have agreed upon is by deduction of £2 per month, from the Ist May next, until the whole amount shall have been refunded. Each immigrant family is located on forty acres of land, which they are to hold on the following terms : —Twenty acres is reserved for two years certain, and they have a right to purchase it at any time within that period ; but if they purchase within twelve months, the other twenty acres is reserved for two years longer, in order to give them the opportunity of acquiring it at the upset price of £1 per acre. Thus, within three years, they may become freeholders of forty acres of land, no very difficult matter for a thrifty family with regular Government work to begin with, and with the opportunity of obtaining the highest prices for any produce they may grow as population increases in their neighbourhood. The block on which they are located is the finest possible description of bush land, not very heavily timbered, and each family has a frontage of ten chains on the main road line to Foxton. They appear to be perfectly satisfied with their prospects, and I have every faith in their success. The interpreter, Andersen, who received a free passage per " Celceno," I found willing to avail himself of the same opportunity of settlement offered to his countrymen who emigrated at the Government expense. 1 found him most useful in making my arrangements for the supply and removal of the party, and I took the responsibility of giving him £5 as a remuneration for his services. I have also engaged him to act as a medium of communication between the immigrants and the Government for the sum of 10s. per week for the first three months from the Ist March, and ss. per week for the next three months ; after which time I do not think that there will be any necessity for such an appointment. 1 have just returned from a second visit to the settlement; and although the weather has been most unfavourable for any outdoor work, the Norwegians had made good progress, most of them having built substantial little houses, and some of them having felled from one to two acres of bush, besides working as regularly as the state of the weather would allow on Government contracts. Some little dissatisfaction, indeed, did exist in the case of four of them whose land lay rather low, and was inundated by an intersecting creek during the very heavy rains which occurred in the month of March. I have however removed these families to a more favourable spot, and they are cheerfully settling down to work. I found, also, some doubts existing as to the motives of the Government in placing them on that country, some loafing fellows about the place having been busy in the attempt to persuade them that the rate of wages, Ac, proposed to them was below the average, and that they were brought there solely for the purpose of reducing the price of labour. Half an hour's conversation, however, removed all traces of dissatisfaction or suspicion, and the}' acknowledge with gratitude the favourable circumstances under which they are enabled to begin life in a foreign country. I wish to direct the attention of the Government to the extra charge of £11 9s. incurred on account of two of the immigrants, and which might be considered chargeable against them. This arises from the fact that their wives were so near their confinement that it was not considered advisable to take them with the main body to Palmerston from Foxton, and 1 had to make tho best arrangements I could with a countryman of theirs, a Mr. Jonson, at Foxton, to board the two women and an attendant at 10s. per week each, and with Mr. Batten Smith, to secure his medical attendance at Foxton. The charges in both cases I consider most reasonable, but still they are a heavy additional burthen to the two immigrants at the outset of their career; and although I have told them that they will have to pay the amount, and given them no hope of its being cancelled, yet I would respectfully urge that the Government would relieve them of the charge. I propose immediately to send in a further report relative to the arrival and location of the Swedish and Danish immigrants, when I shall venture to make a few remarks as to the effect of the introduction of these immigrants, and the advantages which present themselves to the Colony from the establishment of a steady continuous stream of immigration from the Scandinavian Provinces. The enclosed accounts will, I think, place the whole matter clearly before the Government. I have sent a copy of Account No. 2 to Mr. Stewart, the Paymaster at Palmerston, in order that there may be no mistake as to the mode aud time of the repayment of the advances made. I would request that Mr. Stewart be instructed to make the promised payments to the interpreter, Frederick Andersen. I have, Ac, The Hon. the Minister for Public Works, A. Follett Halcombe. Wellington.

Enclosure 1 in No. 20. Account No. 1. Memorandum of Disbursements for Norwegian Immigrants, as sent in to the Paymaster-General. £ s. d. £ s. d. R. M. Cleland, stores ... ... ... ... ... ... 128 12 2 James Smith, drapery ... ... ... ... ... ... 2 9 3£ E. AY. Mills, ironmongery ... ... ... ... ... 65 13 11 J. Symonds, firewood <at Barracks ... ... ... ... 1 10 0 Dockry, cartage ... ... ... ... ... ... 0 15 0 Stewart, cartage ... ... ... ... ... ... 15 0 P.S. " Luna," passages to Manawatu ... ... ... ... 36 0 0 Carried forward ... ... ... ... ... £236 5 4_r 5