ACCOMMODATION FOR IMMIGRANTS

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 66, 1 August 1874, Page 8

ACCOMMODATION FOR IMMIGRANTS

J.HE advocates of free, indiscriminate and extended immigration may, ere long, be compelled to admit the possibility of " having even too much of a good thing." Last week we drew attention to the miseries and hardships which were being endured through want of sufficient house accommodation, and since then twelve hundred persons have been added to our population. It is well known that the preaenfc is the dullest season of the year, and to obtain employment of any kind it is necessary it should be sought in the country districts, where the chances of succeeding are but remote indeed. Where, then, are the hundreds of families to be housed while the heads travel the country in search of work ? and even where the applicant has been successful and the means of supporting a family has been found, the accommodation is so limited, and tho rents demanded so enormously high, that when conceded to they swallow up a large proportion of income. i<rom all parts of the province, and even every quarter of the colony, the cry is still the same, and yet the Government have taken no adequate steps to meet the emergency. Some dozen houses, equal to the requirements of about a score of families, were erected by the authorities some few months since, and although they were proved to nave been a boon to the unfortunate people, and a profitable investment, returning the money expended in their erection in less than three years, no further steps have been taken to extend so necessary a public work. In Canterbury, likewise, the Provincial authorities seem to be at their wit's end to find accommodation for the fast increasing population. The following humorously written account of the difl£ culty experienced in that respect, written by a " New Chum," is both expressive and amusing. He says :— " On last Saturday fortnight, I obtained a job of work, to which I was to go on the Monday. Consequently I was told to clear out of Addington, and go to live at Armagh street, as the Q-overnment would not allow me to stop at the Dep6t after obtaining work. I arrived at the Barracks about five or six o'clock on a Saturday night, and was very much surprised at being ushered into a prison cell, the only alteration being that the old ironbarred door was taken off and laid up outside and a more civilised one put on : with this exception, the cell was in the same condition as when usedjor prisoners, the authorities not having taken the trouble to erase the choice compositions, both in prose and verse, with which the cell had been adorned by previous compulsory occupants. As my wife cannot read, and is, like most of Eve's daughters, a little curious, Bhe wanted to know what all the writing was about, so I had the pleasant task of pretending to read them to her, converting them into what Scriptural texts I could remember, upon which she remarked, • Dear me, I wonder what they locked the poor fellows up for ; they must all have been religious.' This is the accommodation I have at present, and for it I have to pay tho Government six shillings per week."