SATURDAY, JANUARY 12,1850. EMIGRATION AND COLONIZATION.

New Zealander, Volume 5, Issue 391, 12 January 1850, Page 2

SATURDAY , JANUARY 12,1850. EMIGRATION AND COLONIZATION.

As our readers no doubt desire to be kept informed of any sayings or doings on the general subject indicated by this heading, we group together some references to it in the papers which have lately reached us, interweaving a few comments of our own as occasion seems to arise. In the House of Commons, on the 25 th of July, Mr. Monsell called attention to the nonfulfilment of an engagement that the government would send out emigrants to Australia in certain specified proportions from England, Scotland, and Ireland, according to the population of those countries respectively ; and to the allegation which had appeared in the newspapers that female emigrants had been shamefully treated by some of the officers of emigrant ships. Mr. Hawes, in reply, admitted that the fair proportion of emigrants had not been taken from Ireland, but, after the stereotyped fashion, promised thatthe grievance should be redressed, adding that " many applications from intending emigrants in Great Britain had been passed over, until the disproportion of which the hon. gentleman complained should be rectified." On the second point, he admitted that, in one ship, at all events— the So-braonr-the conduct of the officers towards the female emigrants had been such that the penalty of £500 in the bond entered into by the owners had been enforced. It is gratifying to observe that Mr. Hawes spoke of the fla» grant evil here indicated, in such a tone as warrants the expectation that the matter will be attended to in future. It would be scarcely possible to name a class of persons having stronger or more interesting claims on protection than virtuous females in emigrant ships. An announcement has appeared in the United Service Gaxctte which will engage the notice of military men as well as of colonizing citizens. It is as follows :— " The Government has determined that, in future regiments intended for service in Australia and Tasmania thall not proceed direct to those colonies, and afterwards move to India, but that they shall go to India in the first instance, serve their allotted time, then, on being relieved from Home, go on to Sydney or Van Diemen's Land, and ultimately settle there when the expiry of service entitles them to the privilege." The Sydney Herald expresses strong approbation of this scheme, declaring that—" of the value of this class of emigrants there cannot be a second opinion." We venture to think, however, that there may be a second opinion, i a very decided opinion, that old soldiers do not, generally speaking, make the most valuable class of emigrants. Indeed, our contemporary himself, makes such admissions as — " we do not expect that many of the military colonists will follow pastoral pursuits ;" and again, "It is not from the military colonists that the wool growers must look for shepherds ;"— serious drawbacks, we apprehend, from their value as emigrants to New South Wales. There is more reason in the expectation that they will prove " in populated districts an invaluable acquisition in raising local corps (of militia), and in making them rapidly efficient." We may note here that the Herald, in remarking on this scheme, takes occasion to censure with some acerbity, what it calls " Governor Grey's miserable arrangements" in the disposition of the New Zealand Fencibles, by which the Pensioners are located in the North, without giving the settlers at Cook's Straits a fair proportion of their services. Now, we believe the plan from the commencement contemplated such a disposition of the Pensioner-immigrants in this part of the colony, as our contemporary stigmatizes as an "evil into which Governor Grey has fallen." The Southern settlers have in their negociations with the New Zealand Company made their own arrangements for a supply of immigrants to meet their wants; and, we may add, the Pensioners are not found so very useful or suitable a class of immigrants here, that the Northern and Southern Provinces ] would be at all likely to quarrel about their exclusive possession. But the Herald has more than once lately shown a disposition to take — or make — opportunity of hitting at the Government of New Zealand and its policy. To return to our summary, however, — we have an account of the selection by the Board of Guardians at Nenagh (in Ireland) of 300 ,

female paupers as eligible emigrants for Australia. They were between the ages of 16 and 19, and are described as having manifested the utmost delight at the prospect of becoming ind^skoru,^ and independent immigrants, instead of inmates 01 . 'por.-house. Out of the 300, the emigration agent was to sli€LlsQ*r being the number which Government will only send from one Union. Germany also, according to the Adelaide Observer, is to aid in peopling the colonies in these seas. Our contemporary says, — " Through a channel of undoubted authenticity, wa have obtained information of another important movement in Germany in favour of thii colony, The au« thoritiet or leading personages in a populous German principality, applied to the British Government for information touching the eligibility of South Australia, and the prospects of success for German emigrants ; and the official reply has been deemed conclusively satisfactory. The immediate consequence has been that intending emigrants to the number of six thousand had decided in favour of this colony at their future home, and as the numerous body will comprise capitalist* and farmers, as well as labouring agriculturists, shepherds and herdsmen, we may calculate on witnessing the early occupation of one of our many improvable districts by a compact and friendly, if not a specially organized German rural community. It is rather surprising that more of the domestic manufactures of Central Germany have not been called into existence here : we mean those for which the raw material might be provided on the spot." Port Phillip is also likely to receive immigrants from an usual source, if we may rely upon the following statement which we take from the Victoria Colonist :-— " By private letters from America, we le«rn that three ressels are now built at Prince Edward's Island, for the purpose of conveying emigrants from thence to this colony, and that more will follow, bringing their own shipi, to add to our commercial navy, unless the accession should be prevented by the reports, from the first arrivals, of the obstacles which the local govern* ment present to the purchase of land by new comers." Dr. Lang's emigration schemes continue to call forth more than insinuations that the Reverend Schemer is — to speak mildly — over sanguine in his estimate of his own resources, and somewhat imaginative in his descriptions at home of the mighty things which he and " The Port Phillip and Clarence River Colonization Society " can accomplish. We should take care however, how we harbour any suspicion that he is not pre-eminently the wisest guide to whom intending emigrants could commit themselves blind-folded ; inasmuch as he does not scruple to ascribe to Satanic influence, every hint that might " excite distrust and apprehension" respecting his projects. In this he is not only supported, but outstripped by his fidus Achates, the editor of the British Banner, who, for coarse and reckless abusiveness, as well as for other and analogous qualities, might safely be backed against almost any living writer. " The Sydney Devil," (as more Campbelliano, the Banner styles the Sydney Herald,) comes in for a large share' of the most recent vituperation of the " Arcades ambo, id est^," — but we shall not finish the line :— here again we must tread warily, lest the reminiscenses of our juvenile (and, we confess, indefensible in one point of view,) perusal of Byron, should call forth another out-pouring of the vituperation with which the editor of the so-called Christian Witness, (who is also editor of the Banner,) not long ago visited some of the London journalists who dared to point out that he had published as original, verses stolen, with a little characteristic disfigurement, from the Bridi of Abydou The Herald concludes a long article on this subject, in its number of the 17th ult., with this significant intimation : — " The Doctor (Lang) seems blown upon in London, and therefore we may expect him here shortly. We shall then put a few questions to him, relative— not to dissent or democracy, bishops or elders, or old exploits, — but to acres, and pounds sterling, and things of present moment." When we heard of the Doctor last, he was at the Shetland Isles, recruiting for female emigrants, as it is stated that " the women on the islands far outnumber the males, from the circumstance of there being few families on the islands which had not lost some of their male members by accidents at sea." Emigration is one of the topics discussed at some length in a despatch from the Hon. F. Scott to the Speaker of the (New South Wales) Legislative Council ; but it is treated chiefly with a view to the vindication of the Hon. Gentleman's favourite " Colonization Society." He remarks that " the Government have in practice acknowledged the superiority of assisted emigration by the alterations they have recently made in the payments towards passages." He refers pointedly to the fact that a sum of nearly half a million was remitted last year by former emigrants to America, to their friends in Ireland, to assist them in following to the United States, and urges an imitation of that system in the Australian colonies, as one of the best means of diverting to this quarter a portion of the stream of emigration which is flowing chiefly to America. We know that this has actually beea done to some extent here, although the comparative greatness of the cost of coming out must necessarily constitute a formidable hindrance. A yet greater discouragement, however, is found in the circumstance to which we have before adverted, and which, while it remains unaccounted for, must operate injuriously in various ways, — viz: that, on the invitation of the New Zealand Government, a number of parties applied, at our Colonial Secretary's office, stating their willingness to appropriate