IP? $$&in& Jf/ar, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1891. The Exodus to America

Feilding Star, 24 November 1891, Page 2

IP? $$&in& Jf/ar, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1891. The Exodus to America

The eoniplaints made by the Government of the United States of the undesirable characters which have been poured into America from Europe, and recently brought prominently before our readers by cablegram, may be new to us, but Buch is far from being the case with the complainants. >o far back as the year 1820 the collectors of customs at seaports were compelled to keep a record of aliens arriving by vessels from foreign countries, but no record of overland immigration was kept until the year 1840. In 1846 consequent upon the potato famine in Ireland and bad times in Germany, and 1849-50 the rush to the California gold fields, immigration increased by leaps and bounds until 1854 when it reached to nearly 500,000. During the civil war it decreased but after that it increased again in a fluctuating and fitful manner. The influx of aliens is best shown by the following statistics, for which we are indebted to the Nineteenth Century, compiled from reports issued by the Board of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York. These statistics show the total number of alien immigrants who have arrived at the port of New York from the sth of May 1847, until the 31st December 1890 (inclusive) was 10,050,936. Of these 3,502,352 were from Germany, 2,579,659 from Ireland, 1,571,641 from Great Britain, 376,286 from Italy, and 2,020,998 from all other countries. It should be noted that at least two thirds of the whole number of alien emigrants who came to the United States from other countries, arrive at the port of New York. The causes of this influx are various. One is undoubtedly steamship solicitation. Some of these companies have as many as 2000 agents in Europe, and their subagents are to be found in every district in the continent. These people received liberal commissions varying from fifty cents to two dollars for each emigrant passenger obtained. Their business is to create emigrant passengers by solicitation and induce tnenfc, and to that end they picture in glowing terms the new life to be found in the New World, and struggling unfortunates, the halt, the lame, and the blind become involuntary emigrants, and, from an American point of view, very undesirable citizens. In 1888 there was a war of rates among the steamboat companies so that an emigrant could travel from London to Chicago for £2 2s. This low rate offered exceptional facilities to foreign Governments, Poor Law Guardians, and Charitable Societies to rid themselves of the burden of persons unable to support themselves and families, by purchasing tickets aud shipping them off to America. The uhief offender was, of course, England, because according to the Poor Law of 1834 money from rates could be used to assist paupers to emigrate. From 1851 to 1886 the number of persons thus got rid of was 40, 154. America protested, but the emigrants went forward all the same. The other principal cause which effects the influx of aliens into the United States is undoubtedly Canadian immigration.That is people coming over the Canadian border who came by that circuitous route to avoid the inspection now established at New York and other ports. This continual stream of labor has a tendency to lower the standard of wages which the American laborer has hitherto enjoyed, and the only persons opposed to its res : triction are the great manufacturers, and contractors whose interest it is to keep the price of labor at its lowest level. Ouo result of this indiscrimiuate immigration is shown in the riots which havo taken place in New York, and other States, during the last five and twenty years, and the outbreaks of Anarchists in the city of Chicago. The Act of 1882 which levies a duty of fifty cents on all alien passengers arriving at any port in the United States, provides that any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any persons unable to take care of thetneelvea shall not be permitted to land Of course the only real remedy is to close Canadian ports to those un^ fortunates, but after all such au Act would be a dead letter so far as it effected people of questionable morals.

To-M-.jKUOV.', according to the regulations gazetted under the " Hospital and Charitable Institutions Act, 1885," meetings for the election of members for the new district of Palmerston North, will be held as follows :—Manchester Road Beard (2 votes), Halcombe Town Board (1 vote), Kiwitea lload Board ( I vote), Manawatu Road Board (1 vote), Fitzherbert Road Board (1 vote) at the Manchester ivoiul Board oilicc, Feilding, at 2 p.m., and Manawatu County Council (2 votes), Foxton Borough Council (1 vote), at the Manawatu County Council office, Sanson, at 12 noon. As regards the Feilding Borough, there being no power until the triennial apportionment under section C of " The Hospital Act, ISSG," (which will take place next year) to alter the representation of local bodies, the local authorities in the Palmei-sfcou North district as constituted hy the Act of last session, will each elect the same number of members to the new as they did formerly to the Wanganui Board, and Feilding will have alone the representative which, before the division of tho district, it shared with Marton. The election of a representative of the Borough should also take place tomorrow.