IMMIGRATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3433, 21 February 1874, Page 2

IMMIGRATION.

To the Editor, Sir,—The recent arrival of a large steamer at the port with so large an amount of sickness on board suggests the necessity of strict investigation being af oncfe mdde by the Government, as to the Way in which the despatching officers at Home attend" to their duty. There are many curious facts in con'nectiou with immigrant ships that will probably interest the thinking member’s •£ the community. 1 ■ “ 1 1 By Act of Parliament it foas been decreed that no hospital, or other enclosed berth for the use of sick persons, shall be fitted upia the tween decks, upless remold 3 considerable distance from the emigrants? sleeping berths. In one of the Northern ports ol New Zealand there lately arrived a vessel rn winch the female hospital was in the married compartment in ’tween decks within one inch (certainly not two inches) of some of The married couples’ sleeping bunks, lu this case fortunately no zymotic

diseases appeared, else it may easily be judged what would have been the result of berthing those affected so near the rest of the emigrants. The writer can testify that there was not sufficient timber on board to build a hospital on the upper deck if au epidemic had arisen ; the male hospital being unsuitable for such a purpose, not only from its size but also its position. The above ship was visited by the despatching officer before the passengers were embarked, and also bv the Immigration Commissioners on its arrival at the port of destination. The same ship had no quicklime aboard, and. only one bushel of sand instead of five, both these articles being of great service in preserving dryness and cleanliness. Two ships lately arrived in Northern ports under charter, in which it was in one instance stated (and also on the emigrants’ tickets) that children under four years of age were to have, among other things, so much arrowroot and sago per diem ; yet the above articles were omitted from the gross quantities of the provisions contracted for by the Agent-General, so that the children would literally have had to have gone without those necessary articles of food had they not been provided from the medical comfort stores, which are intended solely for the use of the sick. As it wa*, they had not anything like the quantities of those articles of food their parents had been promised. It should he distinctly remembered that the Agent-General contracts with the emigrants to give them on the passage the above articles, and yet fails to contract with the charterers of the ship for their supply. In one of the above ships, the eggs were so bad that they had to be thrown overboard. It would be an interesting inquiry to make, on the arrival of immigrant ships in any of our ports, as to the quality of the wines put on board for the sick. Let our Immigration Commissioners demand a bottle each of the port and sherry wines (medical comfort stores), let them see that it is the medical comfort wine, and then send it to the public analyst. 1 think it will be granted that sick persona should receive, when they need it, only the purest and best of wines, .Regarding medical inspection of emigrants on embarkation, what kind of an examination is it in which, say, a couple of hundred souls pass before the inspecting officer in aalf-an-honr ? The emigrants are mustered on the upper deck and pass before the Government officers, one of whom is the inspecting medical officer; sometimes they are taken indiscriminately, at others, as they are married or single (latter, male or female). The adults, single or married, re; e vescarody any attention, unless they nave a marked eruption on the face or other exposed parts of the person. The same may be said of children above the age of five. Below five, and especially with infants, the following questions are gen rally asked Has the child been vaccinated ? What is its age ? Are your children healthy ? If in petticoats the lower part of its body is glanced at. It is then passed, and the next ,family is hurried through in the same manner ; the surgeon superintendent generally assists in passing the emigrants, but all have to come under the observation of the inspecting medical officer. It is impossible by such a cursory method of examining emigrants to detect zymotic diseases ; scarlatina, for example, has a period of incubat'.ou, and some people nave it so slightly that it is with difficulty detected, and yet it can spread from them to others. When speaking of scarlatina, no special illusion to the Mongol is meant; but it is worth while inquiring what was the cause of so large an amount of bronchitis on board the above-mentioned steamer. In what latitude did she make her voyage from the meridian of the Cape ? What weather had she in that portion of her voyage ? And, what are the southern limits vessels carrying Government immigrants are allowed to reach? I may possibly open my note book again in a few days, and give you a few facts about immigrants and those above them ; anyhow they shall be facts, pure and unaided by the imagination.—l am, etc., _ Observer. Dunedin, February 21.