The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1874.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 166, 15 July 1874, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. WEDNESDAY, JULY 15, 1874.

j The change in the Colonial Executive, whereby Mr. Vogel became the Minister for Immigration instead of Mr. O'Rorke, can scarcely have proved very gratifying to Dr. Featherston, the AgentGeneral iu London, who must have discovered that in the Premier he has to deal with a very different man from the mild Mr O'Rorke, who appears to have allowed him to do pretty well as he pleased. As an illustration of this we will give a few extracts from letters addressed by Mr Vogel to the Agent-General. The first is dated 25th October, 1873, and commences as follows: — "In communicating to you the fact already announced by telegram that I am acting as Minister for Immigration, allow me to express the hope that our relations will be of a cordial character, and that you will endeavor to give effect to the instructions it will be ray duty from time to time to send you. Should you not wholly agree with those instructions, but at the same time see no radical objections to giviug tbem effect, you should defer to tlw, iustru..tions rather than to jour own personal views. Bjt if you do tec serious objections to any instructions sent you, then I will ask you, unless they are wholly unimportant, not to make them the subject of a correspondence, which, from a distance, must b_ protracted, but to state your objections by cablegram, and to abide the reply."

In the next letter, dated two days' later, Mr Vogel begins to assert himself, for in it we find the following:— " Regarding the suggestion, which you characterise as « wholly impracticable,' I have to Btate that it was carefully considered in Cabinet. It was to this effect: 'Do not let Shaw, Savill, know when you want ships, but arrange for each, as wanted, privately, through respectable owners or brokers.' lam under tho impression that you did not realise the extent to which tbis direction was meant to empower you. It not only covered the power to arrange for psssages or. freights, but to engage ships. You surely cannot suppose that Messrs Shaw, Savill, and Co., ara so powerful that brokers will not engage ships without consulting them. If that is your opinion, pray undeceive yourself by consulting some respectable, independent broker. He will tell you that, in a few hours, he can engage you a ship for any part of the world, without consulting Messrs Shaw, Savill, and Co." On the 24<h of November, the Minister for Immigration begins to think that tbe Agent-General is a man of too much faith in the English Emigration Commissioners, and° he does not hesitate to tell him so. He says : — "I judge from previous correspondence that you bave more confidence in the officers of the Emigration Commissioners than I have. From information that I have received, and which I regard as trustworthy, I sm led to believe that^those officers constantly accept remuneration from the persons interested in vessels. Ba that as it may, I have tho honor to positively instruct you that you place no reliance whatever in the examinations .of the officers of the Cortmissioners. I desire, no matter what the expense, that the vessels bo examined by an officer appointed by yourself, and responsible solely to you. You should rigidly insist ou the conditions that tbe fittings are completed at least twentyfour hours before the timo appointed for the immigrants to go on board the ship. I have to request that you will io every case send to me by first mail a copy of your officer's certificate." Apparently, Dr Featherston neglected to keep his Government as fully acquainted with the proceedings as he should have done, for on the 24th of December we find tbat the following gentle reminder on the subject was addressed to him :— « I now wish to say, generally, that I think it is due to the Government and your own posi.ion that you should each month send a semi-official letter Riving any information you think will be of value to New Zealand, not only in respect to the monetary and the political world, but also generally to the proceedings of your department for the past month, and your contemplated future action. The letter should, as I have said, be semi official, but with the clear understanding that the Government would be at liberty to publish any part of it. I am under the impression that the Agents-General for tbe other Colonies do not allow a month to pass without such a letter in case. You have yourself, in your communications, frequently shown tbat you understood your representative position, and that you recognised the very great importance of your being able to obtain information likely to be of use to the Colony. But of what avail is it that you should hold such a position, or obtain such information, if the information is not furnished to the Colony excepting once a year, when Parliament is* about to meet. I ara persuaded that if you once recognise that it is an important part of your duty to make such communications as I have described — just as an ambassador makes semi-official communications to the Government of the country he represents — you will never permit a month to pass without sending such letters. At present the correspondence we receive from you is confined to answers of letters from the Colony; frequent rejoinders to answers made to previous communications; and covering letters to official documents. You must be aware that you have not been in the habit of sending letters such as I have now requested; and you must also be aware that the AgentGeneral for Victoria, for example, constantly sends to his Government information of all kinds such as I have indicated, which information has been of very great use to the Colony." One of the sub-agents in England, Mr Otty well, appears to have forgotten his position, in consequence of which the following well-deserved rebuke is administered to him per favor of the Agent-General : •*— " Some of your officers are probably very good, but I fear that they are inclined to take too much licence. For instance : not long since I was shown a copy of a letter written by Mr Ottyweil, in reply to a gentleman who thought of introducing a large number of immigrants to New Zealand. That gentleman inquired, not unnaturally, whether the new Governor was Englisb, Irish, or Scotch. He received a moat objectionable reply. Mr Ottyweil wrote to the effect that he did not know of what country Sir James Fergusson was, but that if the querist wrote to Sir James he might or might not answer the question. I co/i&i.Jer each a reply not only very flippant, but either it was untruthful, or Mr Ottyweil must take very little interest in the affairs of the Colony not to know something about the new Governor." On the 16th of March Mr Vogei began io feel uneasy with regard to the character of the immigrants being in.

troduced into the colony, and wrote as follows: — " Several complaints have lately been made regarding the character of emigrants forwarded by you. lam afraid that you are not sufficiently alive to the fact, that under the system of free passages it is necessary that there should be most careful scrutiny into the character and claims of those who desire to obtain passages. In my tele* gram of October 11, 1873, I pointed out to you that the system was to be introduced subject to the condition that there should be exercised great stringency in selection." On the 7th of May the following telegram on the same subject was forwarded .—- --"Arrived: "Asia," " Rakaia," "Golden Sea," *' Apellas." By " Asia," thirty-three women from Cork workhouse. There was no concealment. See Cork Examiner, February the 6th. Presume you understand we absolutely object to workhouse immigration. Positively instruct you to discontinue services Mrs Howard, and refuse passages to all persons she recommends," And on tbe 3rd of June a still further snubbing is addressed to Dr. Featherston :—•« I have already called your attention," says Mr. Vogel, «* to the fact that the shipment by this vessel included a number of girls out of the Cork workhouse, and I took tha opportunity of remarking upon the very undesirable character of such immigration. A perusal of the report of the Immigration Officer at Dunedin, addressed to my colleague, the Hon Mr Reynolds, forwarded herewith, will, I think, convince you how very disastrous it is likely to prove to the cause of immigration if such modes of selection as tho3e adopted by Mrs Howard are, under any circumstances, permitted. A few disreputable, noisy women of the class whieh are to be found in the vvorkhouees, are sufficient to destroy the comfort of a whole shipload of respectable people, and the knowledge that there is a chance of such company will deter the better sort, whom the Colony really wants, from taking advantage of the immigration scheme. The result in the Colony of the landing and distribution of such women as these complained of, and of s such immigrants as the "young men" whom Mr Allan states he has ascertained to bo '* professional thieves, and one of them a ticket-of-loave man," is naturally a feeling of indignation and dismay, and you will be good enough in each case to cause a search of inquiry to be made, and report to me fully the whole circumstances which led to the arrangements with the Cork workhouse authorities for shipping their paupers as emigrants, and also inform me wbat officer of your department accepted as free immigrants the young men, H— *, r~— *, R — , M — , and S — , and upon what certificate and recommendations." We have perused the correspondence before us with much interest, and after doing so have arrived at two conclusions, one being that the ehaoge from Mr O'Rorke to Mr Vogel, as head of the department, is decidedly one for tha better, and the other that Dr. Featherston iB either a very ill-used man, or one for whom a more efficient officer might ba substituted with benefit to the colony.