FEMALE EMIGRATION. BRITISH LADIES FEMALE EMIGRANT SOCIETY. (From the "Australian and New Zealand Gazette.")

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 616, 10 March 1852, Page 3

FEMALE EMIGRATION. BRITISH LADIES FEMALE EMIGRANT SOCIETY. (From the "Australian and New Zealand Gazette.")

We have hing before us the Second Report of '•Jig above .Society, which is distinct from, but having objects similar to that originated by the llinhfc Hon. Sydney Herbert These are to establish homes for the instruction and preparation of female emigrants previous to their departure; to provide visitation at the ports, to secure judicious and efficient matrons for the voyage, and to form corresponding societies in the colonies for the protect ion and assistance of the female immigrants on their arrival. The society, like its predecessor, numbers many names of high rank; and her Majesty the Queen lias added a munificeut donalion to its funds. The society is yet in its infancy and its chief labours have hitherto been confined to the visitation of emigrant ships ; no less than seventy of these having been visited during the past year, and a large amount of instruction has been imparted at the Government depots; —the whole being under the management of ladies, who demote-themselves heartily to the work, and have already effected much good, not only in the mental seed sown, but in the distribution of substantial comforts of wliieh female emigrants but too often stand in need. An effort is about to be made to establish a home in which girls may be received and trained on the principle of servant's training schools, with a view to their being sent out as'&ervants to the colonies ; whilst in the same home, matrons will also be trained to the duties of their office whilst on board. In this, as in all similar cases, funds are required, and the good effected can only be commensurate with such aid ; • —but we are confident such institutions only require to be known, in order to awaken the benevolence of many, and, till the legislature of this country is alive to the necessity of providing for i'emule emigration as a part of a national sy&lem,

benevolence cannot be hotter displayed than in the promotion of such objects. We fear there is but too much apathy in thl& country with regard to female emigration. It is not a taking subject with the money chinos. No theorist could get together a number of .speculators, and form a coloni/.ing company on the strength of it. There are thousands who might i be induced to put down their money for the purchase of imaginary estates in new colonk 1 :-, but perhaps not one of these would give a doit towai ds female emigration ; — though without the latter it is about aseasy to give permanent value to their land orders as it was for the Israelites of old to make bricks without straw. All, or nearly all that has hither) o been done for female emigration, has been effected by the aristocratic class, including of course those semiaristocratic persons who are " at ease in their possessions." The monied middle class has literally done nothing, and nothing effectual can be done without then co-operation. The benevolence of the aristocratic classes in this country is proverbial, but that benevolence has a limit, and no one who peruses the munificent aids they have afforded towards female emigration can doubt but that limit is almost reached, if from no other cause than the limited number of the donors. But the aids thus afforded are not a system, or at least not a system of sufficient extent to meet the rapidly growing evil. Yet the evil must be met, or, like all other diseases in the body physical and the body politic, it will assuredly come to a eiisis. Colonization without a due proportion of the sexes is, taken in a philosophical point of view, a suicidal act. By providing for the emigration of the male sex alone such a system actually decrees that females shall be left behind with the alternative only of vice or starvation. We need not say which alternative is taken ; — and when we look at the influence exercised by these doomed women over their corresponding class of male associates, it must be evident that by abstracting the more intelligent and best conducted of the male portion only, we are deteriorating the moral status of those left behind. In most other countries it is deemed an object worthy the attention of Government to preserve a healthy moral balance in the population. In our country this is not in the least attended to. It is true we provide policemen to apprehend evildoers, and judges to punish them; but such a thought as that of adopting any system of preventing cvil — with regard to the female population especially — never seems to enter into the ideas of our legislators. When, from our neglect of these mattcis, we have fairly netted a young female in the commission of crime to which that neglect has driven her, we have na com punction in sending her as a servant, wife, or mother in the house of a Van Diemen's Land bushman, further to corrupt a dwelling, perhaps not over pure already — but to send her before she is corrupted, and whilst she is in the full possession of that influence which all pure-minded women carry with them — to add to the comforts of, and civilize the uucouth but good-hearted backwoodsman, never comes within the scope of our enlightened senators. Thus our system provides that in order for a young unmarried woman to get to our colonies, she must first become a thief. Even if our Government, in a fit of desperation, sends out a few cargoes of women occasionally, the very wost specimens of the sex are selected, as in the case of the Port Phillip female emigrants, to which we have* before alluded, and fuel is thus added to colonial flame. The question of emigration from this country is assuming a new phase, and we shall ere long have to attend to female emigration, for it is questionable whether we have not almost pushed male emigration to its healthy limit. We do not take into account that by sending out men only of high character — or, in the case of their self-expa-triation, that none but energetic men emigrate — we leave at home a larger proportion of the lazy, the criminal, and the worthless. To mend this state of thing-*, by our neglect of female tion, we compel them also to become lazy, criminal, and worthless. What will be the ensuing generation resulting from this mixture?" We have aheady an earnest of it in the criminal calendars of our assizes and sessions. We now surpass mo^t other nations in' the number of murders committed, and it should be a striking fact which- recent experience developed, that the chiel'actors in these are women. The number of minor offences i,s also becoming appalling, and in those, too, women, or causes arising from female associations, are preponderant. The evil will not wait much longer though our legislative apathy may wish to indulge in a little more slumber. But in the meantime, until Providence shall send us a government able to grapple with the difficulties of our increasing population, it becomes the bounden duty of all lovers of their country to make every exertion for promoting female emigration, as one of the best means of checking the railroad spaed of crime-t o say notliing of the benevolent satisfaction which must arise from the consciousness of being the means of saving hundreds, it may be thousands, of inexperienced young women, who cannot aid themselves from destruction. Whilst yet uncorruptcd our colonies will gratefully receive them, and they may become a further bond of union between us and our colonies ; which bond we much need, for the spirit of disaflcction therein, arising solely from our perseverance in mailing crime precede emigration, is every day becoming more and more unmistakeable. Oar system, like all other systems, carries with it its own reward or punishment, and it will be well if its punibhmeut be not, ere long, its reward. The Society to which we have alluded is established under the presidency of the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, with whobe name arc associated those of many ladies of high rank. The offices of the Society are at 25, lied Lion Square, and its Secretary is Mr. Charles Gwillin. We willingly depart from our usual custom in giving publicity to these matters, as we are confident that we are effecting a good purpose in making the benevolent exertions of these ladies as widely known as possible. AYe have also another object, viz., that of bringing public opinion to bear on the Legislature, so that a matter of such national importance as female emigration shall no longer I be left to the sympathies of private benevolence, much as that has effected ; but that it should be deemed worthy of attention in the councils of Government, so that the national disgrace of taking no heed for the most defenceless portion of the population may be wiped away.