HOW IMMIGRANTS ARE RECEIVED AT AUCKLAND.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1610, 2 October 1873, Page 3

HOW IMMIGRANTS ARE RECEIVED AT AUCKLAND.

[NEW ZEALAND HERALD, SEPT. 6.] The immigrant ship Berar arrived in our waters on Wednesday last, from London. There were on board 100 male and 103 female adults, 55 male and 43 female children, besides 10 infants. These were made up of 42 married couples, having in the aggregate 108 children, from the suckling infant to boys and girls maturing towards manhood and womanhood. On Thursday morning, between ten o'clock and mid-day, the whole of the passengers were landed on the wharf. There was no official to receive them, none to render them any information, and all the immigrants could learn was that there were barracks in the vicinity, of the city where they could be quartered. The single men found their way to the bars of the public hotels, and we fear also . several of the females. Towards afternoon, the married couples with their » -families found their way to the barracks ; and, inquiring where they were lodged, a long room was pointed out for their reception. On either side of this room was a row of rough pine bunks, resembling in their construction enlarged candle boxes. Here, iv this room, without any partitions — without as much as a pretence for dividing off the families — without the slightest regard being paid to the most ordinary requirements for observing the decencies of life — over forty married couples with one hundred and eight children where huddled together to pass the night. One dormitory for nearly two hundred souls, is treatment worse than was ever dealt out to a cargo of Polynesian barbarians. The modesty of decent married women outraged, no nourishment beyond dry bread, and tea without milk for the children ; and no provision made for quiet, rest, or refreshment for exhausted mothers, many of them with suckling infants, coming off a long and weary voyage. For the single females a room had been provided separate from the young men, but there was no attempt made to prevent the worst of characters from holding communication with them. Yesterday, ratf meat and uncooked potatoes were served out to the immigrants, and only one small stove was allowed for the cooking necessary for over three hundred people, including, of course, children of both sexes. It was not until late in the afternoon that . a supply of fuel came to hand, no previous order having been given for it. The matron placed in charge of so many immigrants is a feeble woman, fast approaching to" her three score years and teD. The only other official was comprised . in an old man, whose duty it was , to serve out the stores, and who, in the very nature of the work he was called on to perform, was quite unequal to the task. Many and bitter were the complaints of the married women being unable to obtain proper food for their children, or decent sleeping accommodation for themselves, or fuel to cook with. The surgeon . of the Berar was indefatigable in his ' efforts.to see the reasonable wants of his late passengers supplied, but all that he could do at the utmost was very little indeed, and every protest he made passed unheeded. His self-imposed work he soon discovered to be utterly unavailing. Quarters were found for the single men, but there was no one placed in authority over them. They were permitted unchecked to smoke and expectorate through the room, to scatter their bedding broadcast over the floor, to return from their perambulations in a state of intoxication, and to conduct themselves in wild disorder. It will naturally be . asked who was responsible for so much mismanagemenwHlhe answer is that the reception and Raiment of immigrants arriving in Auckland, was taken out of the hands of Provincial powers by the Government at Wellington. The authorities there undertook the charge of making all arrangements, and .we ha^e seen what these consist of.