Boers for New Zealand.

Gisborne Times, Volume VII, Issue 304, 3 January 1902, Page 1

Boers for New Zealand.

If it is true, as reported, that negotiations are proceeding between Mr Seddon and the Home Government in reference to taking “ a thousand Boers into this colony for settlement on the land,” we trust that the project will not be seriously proceeded with. Wo havo no prejudice against the Boers as a people. They have not proved themselves very progressive colonists, but they are certainly full of dogged pluck and perseverance, and if any of them como to our shores as ordinary immigrants, wo should not dream of suggesting that they should be excluded. We would extend to them exactly the same hospitality that we give to other white nationalities. It is a different matter, however, when it is proposed to settle a thousand Boers at once upon the land. There is already a very keen demand for land among New Zealanders, and it is hardly fair that a portion of the national estate should be taken from the inhabitants of this colony and allotted to the Boers. If they aro to be put on the land at all, it would be necossary to lot them have land on which it would be possible for them to make a living; otherwise they would become a source of trouble, expense, and possibly danger to the community. But we have no land of that character to spare for outsiders with whom aye are at present at war. Wo need it all for our sons, and the men who join us from the Mother Land. We trust, therefore, that Mr Seddon will give the Home Government to understand that, anxious as we aro to help them in every possible way, wo cannot agree to this colony being made a dumping ground for a number of Boers.—Press.