IMMIGRATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3558, 18 July 1874, Page 3

IMMIGRATION.

To th« Editor. Sm, —I have just been glancilig over the immigration correspondence laid before Parliament. Some of your readers may remem* ber that when I first arrived here, in charge of the Charlotte Gladstone, in February, 1873, 1 wrote a s-.rics of letters to yor.r paper. Various suggestions were made in those letters and in my official correspondence with the (government. I observe that every surgeon-superintendent whose report is printed in the correspondence makes similar suggestions and similar complaints. It is the old, old story--want of proper medical inspection before embarkation, overcrowding, want of hospital accommodation, deficient water supply, want of proper or sufficient ond for the children, and the difficulty fof keeping the single girls in their own pait of the ship. Now why is it that those matters have to be iterated and reiterated ? There should be a salaried and responsible medical officer appointed to the depdt at Home, who should personally examine every intending immigrant, and send back everybody who is diseased. He should also see and inspect the medical comforts and medicines, and have power to inspect the other stores, and should draw up a plan for hospitals, etc. There should not be so many children sent out. The children are not only sick themselves, but the cause of sickness to others. They cannot be kept clean, and the married compartment cannot be kept clean when it is swarming with children. Single women should not be sent ant with single men. The married women carry communications between these two inflammable batches of immigrants, and the natural re ult ensues. The 'married women will look sharply enough after their own husbands. A qualified engineer and proper means and appliances for repairing the condenser should be sent with every ship. This would easily be managed by selecting an emigrant who was a good engineer, and paying for his work on board. The Government ought to prosecute the immigrants who have disobeyed the orders in Council or the orders of the Superintendent. If this were done a few times, the news would soon reach Horae, and deter the rowdies who disgrace the Col ny, and annoy the respectable immigrants during the voyage, from embarking. It must be remembered that the surgeon has no power to punish any passenger himself. Bis authority may or may not be supported by the esatam, and if it is not upheld by the Government here, it has bo effect whatever. And, lastly, more care ought to betaken in the selection of surgeons. Personal inquiries should be made, and mere testimonials not be relied on alone. Very few people like to refuse a testimonial—especially to a man going to the other side of the globe, and whor.i they may have very good reasons for wishing never to see again. It is too late to write any more at present, so I remain, &0., E. H. Bakewell, M.D. Dunedin, July 17.