The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-14 00:00:00

IMMIGRATION AND LABOUR.

(From the Melbourne Herald.)
The balance of immigration over emigration dur-
ing the last month has been much in our favour.
But it is not small driblets of immigration that
Victoria wants, but large accessions to her popula-
tion. And this, it is to be hoped, we are now on
the eve of procuring.
For nearly 12 months we have been battling
with the Government for a revival of immigration
at the public expense, but our warnings on this
subject have been allowed to pass unheeded. Last
year, in fact, they struck off the Estimates an item
of £50,000, which had been placed on by their pre-
decessors, for female immigration, and they have
during the year resisted all attempts to have the
question reopened, chiefly on the plea of a want of
funds.

Now, however, the Legislature has resolved that
this subterfuge should not stand them any long©r
in stead. Our revenue and expenditure is upwards
of £3,000,000 a year, exclusive of our railway loan
and expenditure, which amounts to another
£3,000,000, and it is felt hard that from a quarter
to half a million of our strictly colonial revenue
canot be spared for immigration. In spite of this,
however, the Nicholson Ministry omitted all refer-
ence to it in the Governor's speech, at the opening
of Parliament, and refused to state what they in
tended to do in the matter in the course of the
debate on the address.

The consequence is that they have ceased to hold
office, and that we are now without any Ministry.
The belief is that the Nicholson Ministry had placed
a small sum, say £50,000 to £75,000, on the esti-
mates for immigration purposes during 1861, but
that they felt that this was so far below general
expectations on the subject that they refused to
give any explanation until the estimates were
brought in, and they had an opportunity of going
into questions of finance in detail. In any case they
have paid the penalty of not meeting the wishes.of
the country on this subject.
Another matter, not altogether foreign to immi-
gration, but, in fact, strictly allied to it, may have in-
fluenced the decision of the Legislature, in their
summary dealings with the Ministry. The Nichol-
son Ministry had taken power under the New Lane
Bill to throw open 3,000,000 of acres of the best
agricultural land of the colony to selection at the
uniform price of 20s. per acre, within one year
from the date of the passing of the bill. But
although two months has elapsed now since the
passing of the bill, only 150,000 acres have been
proclaimed for selection, and that, too, previously
surveyed, and not of the best quality. At this
the Legislature declared itself indignant, and one
of the Ministers had the indiscretion to defend that
course, on the plea that, if they threw all the best
land of the colony open to selection in the first in-
stance, they would have none for future comers.
The force of folly could no further go, and the
Legislature felt this, and acted accordingly. Next
to the want of provision for immigration on a large
scale out of the public purse, no more egregious
blunder than the avowal of such a policy as this
could have been committed.

At present then matters stand thus, that we are
to have a revival of immigration at the public ex-
pense in the course of 1861 ; and that there will
be an abundance of fine land,—if not 3,000,000 of
acres, at least as much of that quantity as can be
surveyed,—thrown open to the selection at
20s. per acre, in the course of the year, in blocks
of from 40 to 320 acres, to suit purchasers,
and that there will, therefore, be an abun-
dance of land for all,—without any fur-
ther risk of competition, than that which is im-
plied in first come, first served. Any small
farmers, therefore,'disposed to alter their condition
know now on what terms they can do so, and any
agricultural labourers, disposed to work at fair,
remunerating rates, know where work is to be had,
if they can only find the means of paying their ex-
penses hither. Meanwhile, we shall take due care,
as opportunity offers, to provide passages for those
of their number, who are absolutely unable to help
themselves, out of the public treasury.
On the labour market generally, we have nothing
particularly new to report. Some of the masons,
who were demanding 14s to 16s a day, for eight
hours work, are now, we hear, submitting to less,
by taking jobs among themselves, at a rate which
does not yield them near that amount of wages ;
and they will have to submit to further reductions,
when the railway works are completed, or turn
farmers or miners. Still their wages are quoted at
former prices • and there is no noticeable change
in the rates of wages of any other considerable
class.

This is the last report of Mr. James Warman,
one of our principal labour-office proprietors, for
the past week, on the state of the labour market,
and it is perfectly reliable :
Men hire readily at moderate prices, and em-
ployers prefer hand labour to machinery, pro'viding
they have not to pay exorbitant wages. Agricul-
tural men begin to see that this is the case, and
are moderate in their demands. Skilled labour
the same.

Females in good demand, especially for really
competent country girls, but females who have
everything to learn demand as much as the most
efficient. This is one of the principal reasons so
many are out of place.
WITH RATlONS.—Married couples for home sta-
tions and service, per annum, £6O ; for hotels, £65 ;
do., with families, £5O; and ploughmen, 20s per
week; farm labourers, haymakers, 16s to 20s; bul-
lock drivers, 20s ; mowers, from 4s to 5s per acre,
they finding their own scythes ; weekly mowers,
25s to 30s, according to crop—scythes and tools
found; gardeners, from £52 to £6O per annum ;
s'►epherds, from £3O to £35 per annum; hut
keepers, £26 per annum ; blacksmiths, for sta-
tions, 354 per weeks ; carpenters, 25s to 30s
ditto ; rough carpenters, 20s per week ; wheel-
wrights, 35s ditto Co.oicsi frODA 20s to OS

ditto ; waiters, from 20s ditto ; hay cutters and
trussers, 4s to 5s per ton, or 25s per week ; lads to
drive bullocks, L-cui 8., to 1.0, ,
20s per week ; lads to milk, B:c., 8s to lOs per
week. Shearers, 15s per hundred, with rations ;
18s, and find themselves ; good farming men, who
will take six months' hire,_ £52 per annum.
WITHOUT RATlONS.—Carpenters, lOs per day ;
masons, from 14s ; plasterers and bricklayers, lOs
to 12s ; quarrymen, 8s to lOs per day ; blacksmiths,
lOs to 12s; able pick and shovel men, 7s ; fencers,
three rails, 2s to 2s 6d per rod, according to the
ground; wire fencers, with rails, is 6d to 2s per
rod ; splitters of posts and rails, 20s to 25s per 100,
according to the timber; stone-breakers, no average
price can be stated ; few persons will take that em-
ploy if any other is to be had, so many have been
cheated; woodcutters, 5s per ton.
FEMALE SERVANTS.—Cooks and laundresses, £3O
to £35 per annum, and occasionally £4O, for hotels,
restaurants, &c. ; for private families, £3O; house-
maids, £26; thorough competent women for gene-
ral housework, £3O; upper class nursemaids, £26
per annum ; nurse girls, from £l4 to £2O ; needle-
women, £26 to £3O; if they are dressmakers, £35
per annum.