IMMIGRATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3437, 26 February 1874, Page 2

IMMIGRATION.

To the Editor. Sir, —It is rather singular that my first letter on immigration should have appeared simultaneously with the'statement of Mr Charles Holloway, in which he says“ One object of my Visit to New Zealand was to ascertain for myself by personal observation the treatment'and accommodation which the immigrants receive on a yoyage from England to New Zealand. In my opinion the present system, or the way in which it is carried out js faulty in the extreme." Though life on hoard a steamer differs much from life on a sailing vessel, and experience of what is required fojr the health and ease of immigrants js npt to ho gathered ijd any single voyage to a»y aipgle .country, hut; from many voyages to different countries,; yet it is to be hoped that the suggestions of Mr Holloway may aid in inducing Government to sweep away many abuses in this department. For abuses there are in abundance, and though they be in matters otherwise trivial, they affect the comfort and lives of the immigrants, and to some extent the future of the Colony. Recurring to the position of the hospitals, there are other reasons besides that of contagion, why these should be iu deck-houses ; tm,re would be secured good ventilation, freedom from the noise of conversation and jars among the immigrants (so frequently a cause °* sick in ’tween deck hospitals), and greater convenience of access, not only to the surgeon but also for the various duties of the nurse. Why not have in every large ship a distinct epidemic hospital for women and children ? It is monstrous that in case of an epidemic aboard, accouchements have to be conducted occasionally in the immigrants' own bunks; iu such cases isolation is by all means

as desirable as it is seemly. Why have the hospitals been so barely fitted up? Every convenience in the way of bunk-shelves and seats ought to be provided. Fancy a ship being sent to sea, with an immigrants cook whose previous experience of sea life and cooking consisted in the fact that he had previously made one voyage in the capacity of cabin boy, in which. be had assisted to carry dishes to and from the galley. Yet, such is not a rare case, and is likely to continue, so long as youths are shipped for this important office ‘for outward voyage only, and one shilling a month/ Imagine a survey allowing a ship to proceed to sea with a galley insufficient in size in the first place, with only ' three coppers for one hundred and thirty souls ; and of these coppers or boilers, two were eo cracked and old as to be literally useless, and the third was so placed as to be almost inaccessible, if its filthy stave had not prevented it being used; in tbis case the Inrger pots apd pans were called into requisition. The arrangements between decks are better in New Zealand emigrant ships than are to be found elsewhere, though not perfect. The mess -tables and the box-forms are commodious and comfortable. The berths are well devised, both as regards amount of cubic space, ventilation, and cleanliness. The plan of having a space between the sides of . the vessel and the sides of the fore-and-aft bunks or ends of the athwart bunks is excellent, if the immigrants would not abuse it. The tin water-cans are objectionable, as, being slop productions, they are constantly leaking, and so causing a large amount of moistness. A percentage of them is generally useless before the tropica are fairly reached. Little attention, however, is paid to clothes-lookers. Supposing it were possible to hold an inspection of one of the berths of the married immigrants in an immigrant ship on the high seas at the present time, we snould find something like the following between the ordinary bed clothes and the boards. At the head of the bunk dirty underclothing of every variety, shirts, and undershirts, drawers, and petticoats, an old pair of boots, possibly mouldy. At the foot of the bed, chignon pads composed of various materials, dirty socks and stockings, children’s clothes aud boots, hair brush and comb, a sour sponge, damp face and body towels, pieces of soap, scraps of food, and last, but not least, dirty napkins. Bags of clean underclothing and overclothes are smuggled in among these. The above is a tame description from life, and certainly has been common in my experience. Is it then to be wondered at that so large an amount of diarrhoea occurs in the married compartment, and that the fatality at sea is so much greater, relatively speaking, in married compartments than in those for single males and females T Though the bunks of our single immigrants require careful inspection, the wonder is that more sickness does not prevail, when so many inhale snob air for several hours each day as that contaminated by the products of perspiration; and if you want to know the deleterious nature of this contamination in its intensity, spend a night in the immigrants’ cabins when the ship is at anchor, and the ordinary means of ventilation are not acting. If \ou add to this the odor. ««i generis, of diarrhoea, which so frequently results from the above state of the bunks, you will have the best possible pabulum for the generation of cholera, fevers, 4c. Some provision ought to be made for the reception of dirty clothing. Could not lookers be built at one end of the compartment; or a bag be furnished to each emigrant, and a room provided for them ? But by all meams let dirty clothing be removed from the sleeping berths, and let the immigrant have no pretext for harboring it there. My note-book is still unexhausted, but my time is limited; I jot down what comes first, and I leave you to reduce,it to order. Trusting I am not uselessly wasting your time and space—l am, Ac., Observer. Dunedin, February 26, P-S.—ls it not strange that the inquiry as to the cause of the disease on board the Mongol was not held before, and especially at the port of arrival f