EMIGRATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3831, 4 June 1875, Page 3

EMIGRATION.

Writing from Edinburgh, under date April 6, Mr Andrew (acting Home Agent for the Province), advises the_ Superintendent that he had that day had an interview with the !Hon. Mr Vogel, who wished, in order to save double expense to utilise the Provincial Home Agency for the purpose of general emigration to the Colony on the following basis .-—Applications for assisted or free passages from Scotland, for whatever Province, to be lodged in Edinburgh in the first instance, so as to meet the prejudice of the Scotch people against communicating with a London office and sailing from that port; the work necessary to carrying out such an arrangement in detail to be conducted by the agent of the Provincial Government; the Province only to be expected to contribute a small sum—say L2OO or L3OO in the name of salary to the agent, with probably the salary of a junior clerk—lor direct Provincial work, and the General Government to defray all other expenses of every description whatever, including office rent, &c. Upon this proposal Mr Andrew reremarks that he and the late Mr Auld “agreed in thinking that so long as this office is kept as the Home Agency of the Provincial Government, there could be no harm in doing within the same walls the work of the General Government under the Emigrant Act, provided the expenses of such additional work were defrayed by the General Government, especially seeing that—as Mr Vogel puts it—a separate agency of the General Government will be necessary in this city in the event of the present proposal not being carried out. That proposal would, your Honor will observe, save considerable expense to the Provincial Government.”

Mr Adam writes to the Premier under date March 20.—“ I question the propriety of sending Otago emigrants from Scotland to London instead of Glasgow. Why should they be forced to take the longest and most costly route when a cheaper and a shorter one can be found ? # And this objection is strengthened by an incidental remark you made yesterday, viz., that a barrack had been found necessary in London because of f. re( l uen t delays in despatching ship!*, 1 his is an old sin of the Loudon shipbrokeru. for it was my experience sixteen years ago, and produced most painful results. Why cannot London ships sail with the punctuality of Glaagow ships, which receive our emigrants always on the day named, and move off with the precision of a railway train ? Depend upon it thart txm want of punctuality in despatching an emigrant vessel is the sure way to contract disease, which will re-appear at th/e end of the voyage in some aggravated form, and necessitate a quarantine and expensive delay. People from the fresh air of tho country cannot be huddled up in the closes tof London or Glasgow with impunity. The gain to the shippers of a few extra tons of perhaps combustible cargo is the loss of the emigrant. You alone have the power to put an end to these things; and if it is not done before you leave it will never be done,”