EMIGRATION MOVEMENTS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 537, 26 June 1869, Page 4

EMIGRATION MOVEMENTS.

The agitation for the. tnmafer of our starving artisans to some more promising fields of industry and advancement is daily acquiring volume and force ; and this new exodus, conducted under national auspices, lias commenced in serious earnest. Meeting has followed meeting in quick succession, the tone of the speakers growing more and more solemn and emphatic, and one shipload after another of our most respectable and vigorous artisans is leaving our shores for more sparsely-peopled lands. On the morning of the 13th, a scene took place at the new magnificent station of the Midland Railway, in St. Pancras, which was altogether without precedent. A company of between 300 and 400 persons had assembled to a substantial breakfast in one of the rooms of the station, most of them strong and vigorous artisans, with their wives and children, but with a sprinkling of ladies and gentlemen, who were actively ministering to the comfort and enjoyment of their departing guests. For it was well nigh the last meal in their island home of 327 emigrants from the east-end of London, and principally from the Isle of Dogs. The movement was a continuation of an experiment made last year, the success of which has encouraged the friends of the destitute Avorkmen to a repetition of their benevolent efforts. From eight o'clock the intending emigrants began to arrive in families and in groups, and were met by Lady Ducie, Lady do Gray, Lady Constance Morton, Lady Burrell, the Hon. Miss Waldegrave, the Hon. Mrs Kinnaird, and the Hon. Mrs Hobarfc, some of whom had been at the station since haK-past six preparing ior the farewell breakfast of the objects of their kindly interest. After a substantial repast provided by Messrs Spiers and Pond, the doxology was sung, and the party adjourned to the platform, which was crowded with friends come to give the last embraces, and utter the last adieux. A special train was provided to convey the emigrants to Liverpool, and it moved out of ihe station amid cheers from the passengers and answering cheers from the spectators on the platform, till the vast roof rang, and the eager passer-by paused, startled by the strange sound, and inquired what it all meant. A bitter necessity was thus at least sweetened by the never-to-be-forgotten kindness of honorable ladies and generous benefactors. Some of the ladies accompanied the emigrants to Liverpool, and did not quit them till the ship weighed anchor and gok up its steam. Therx destination is Canada. On the previous day a public meeting, convened by the mayor, was held at Portsmonth, in reference to the discharged dockyard workmen. Mr Childers h;is placed at their disposal the Serapis and the Crocodile, to convey to Canada or Nova Scotia those who were desirous of emigrating. They were to be on board by the 18th inst. The Government undertook to give the men and their families a free passage, but their rations would have to be paid for, and the dollar rax and pocket money would have to be prov'ded. The British and Colonial Emigration Society have presented a donation of LSOO. Mr Childers had bested LIOO from a private source, and an additional L4OO had been contributed by friends. This LIOOO, it was estimated, would enable them to send out about 450 adults in the Crocodile on the 20th inst. Government had telegraphed to Canada to learn what preparations had been made on the other side for the reception and disposal of the emigrants. Early in the month large meetings of unemployed artisans were held in Poplar and the Isle of Dogs to test the feeling of the population, and to advocate the necessity for a national scheme of emigration. These and similar minor gatherings ia other parts of thp metropolis, culminated on the 12th inst. in a great aggregated meeting at Exeter Hall, under the presidency of Mr Thomas Chambers, M.P. Among the speakers on the occasion were Mr T.orrens, Mr A. M 'Arthur, and Lord Alfred Churchill, all of whom strongly urged the necessity for a continuous outflow of our surplus labor, and showed that, to be steady and effectual, the assistance and control of the Government are indispensable. Lord A. Churchill urged (hat it was to our interest to encourage emigration to our Australian colonies in place of America, and thought that the Home Government should concert measures with the colonial authorities for transporting the strangers on their arrival in to the inner portions of the territories. Facilities should also be given for acquiring land, so that the people might at once settle down in the interior, instead of keeping to the towns and coast lands. Resolutions were passed endorsing these and similar views. These movements are promoted by the National Emigration Aid Society. The emigration agents representing the various British colonies are, of course, exceedingly active, and an imme lse impetus cannot fail to be given to the scattering process. In Clerkenwell there is an Emigration Club which has been so successful that 300 persons are about to leave that district for Cenada by its means. At present it is the Atlantic colonies which are being almost exclusively enriched by means of our overabundance of industrial power, but in the course of a few months we may expect Victoria to appear more prominently in the market as an eager bidder for skilled workmen. The indefatigable Miss Rye, inspired by her succees in the domestic servant line, has cast her benevolent eyes on a very different class of proteges. She proposes to clear out of the streets of our large towns those waifs of humanity popularly known as "City Arabs" and "gutter children." The scheme, however, has not met with a favorable reception. We should be only too glad to get rid of these forlorn juveniles, from whom our criminal class is largely recruited ; but then we have no right to cast the sweepings of our streets into the midst of colonial society. Such a course might well be resented as indignantly as was the continuance of the transportation of our criminals by Australia a few years a^o.