MR. SYDNEY HERBERT'S FEMALE EMIGRANTS. (From the "Times.")

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 648, 30 June 1852, Page 3

MR. SYDNEY HERBERT'S FEMALE EMIGRANTS. (From the "Times.")

Whatever may be the difficulties of the more important questions connected with our Australian cplonies, they would appear as yet to constitute an El Dorado for our young female population. We &peak on the strength of a pamphlet with which we have been favoured by Mr. Sidney Herbert's Society for promoting Female Emigration. At the commencement of a new year tbe directors of this society are anxious to take stock, and communicate to the public the result of tbeir operations. From their statistics iv would appear that, up till the first repoit of the cop->mittcc, 40'J young women had been despatched to Au-iralia. Since that period 228 have been conveyed to the same place, and the society are under a contract to embark 60 more on board a vessel which will sail for Sydney on the 10th of the current month. Thus, well nigh 700 young women have been snatched from the accumulated perils and miseiies which, in the -mother country, are the almost inevitable lot of persons in their position. It would be needless for us to dilate on what the nature of this position is at home. There are, no doubt, hundreds of thousands of young women employed in domestic service throughout the country who are well fed, well clothed, moderately worked, and well cared for in sickness, so it be not of a permanent kind. There is, unfoitunately a reverse to the picture. If there arc bad servants, there are harsh mistresses and unfeeling masters. A young woman is thrown out of place, it may be, for some passing illness ; it may be because in an imguardcd. moment she has uttered some expression which may have given offence to her employers. The tradition of her character is inteirupted. She does not apply for a fresh situation with a clean bill of health. No one will run the risk of accepting her service, and she is cast on the world friendless and forlorn. Still more evil is the case of that hapless class who are employed as steamstresses and workwomen. Day by day the} r must complete their tale of bricks at the rate assigned by their employers — if not, the workhouse, or starvation, if indeed there be not an alternative incomparably more painful .than the discipline of the poorhouse or the cravings of hunger. However much the maxims of econamic science may hold good with regard to other classes of the labouring community, it is certain that they press upon these unfortunates with crushing effect. What is the remedy for all this? Alas ! at home we know of none. In the fatal competition for employment young women will undersell each other, and he who would endeavour to appoint a tariff of remuneration for their labour would undoubtedly injure the objects of Ills commiseration. Public indignation may do something when any case of extraordinary oppression becomes known. Beyond this, there is nothing which will materially improve the condition of these poor young women but the maintenance of the general prosperity, and the growth and spread of moral and religious feeling. Thus much of the position of "such persons in England ; but, from the contents of Mr. Sidney Herbert's pamphlet, it would seem to result that, it they could but be conveyed to the shores of Australia, they might at once find employment. Indeed, the fair inference from the report of the Female Emigration Society would imply much more than employment. We find in the sheets before us copies or nine letters from young women who have emigrated under the auspices of the society. We confess that our first impression was that the letters most favourable to the views and wishes of Mr. Sidney Herbert and his friends had been chosen for publication. It is but fair to give publicity to their statement, " tliat although the necessities of publication obliged a selection from the correspondence, yet these letters are fair specimens of the general tenor of the communications they have received." If this be so, the *' bush must be a perfect Arcadia. We will give in extenso an extract as we find it in Mr. Sidney Herbert's pamphlet. The fortunes of seven persons are here related ; how far they are to bo taken as fair examples of the general fate of all is best known to the committee :—: — " E. D. W., formerly assistant fo a dressmaker obtained a situation as servant at Sydney, was mimed in January, 1851, to a very lespectable man, connected with a mercantile bouse at llobartTown, and is now in comfoi table circumstances, " S. C, landed at Sydney, whore a brother and two sUters reside — one being mained to a police-sergeant, and the other to a plumber; in the house of the latter the emigrant found a comfortable home, and has greatly improved her position in life. "A. R. was servant to a family in somewhat humble citcumstaneea in London ; landed at Adelaide, and obtained a situation as domestic servant, which she lefcuned for a few months, and was then married to Mr. It. W., a coppersmith, now residing at Burra Burra, Ko9iinga; states that she is doing well, and only regrets that her English friends aie not with her ai they would not Jail in obtaining- plonty of good work. " E. M., seivant in a small family in London, entered into service at Adelaide, whence «be married; st.ites that her husband, who is a shepherd, baa a good home, and is doing well, and i-, anxious tli.it her mother and bister should join her in the colony. <'M. A. 8., engaged in London at needlework, procuied employment at Adelaide .is n sen ant ; was manied on Ghiiatmas day, 1850, to a clergyman residing at Taronga. 11 J. A. J., fovmoily engaged at the east end of London at slopwork, joined a brother at Sydney, who is master of a trading vessel, ns his liouselieepi'i . " M. S., at the east end of London, a needlewoman, informs her friends she intends to write as soon as she has finished making her ioitune." Other young ladies write about shops as handsome as those in London — the grandeur of tbo tlmnder-stoinij — the splendour of Ihe lightning — the beauty of the moonlight, the insects, and the cactuses — the green peas and cherrier. on Christmas-clay — liui, above, all of the perfect facility with v.hicli cxfillont Jit'sbfind'j dv: foilh-

coming on the faintest inquhy, or, indeed, without any inquiry at ail. It is all Acts and Galatea in practice, Henceforth let? the cooing dove be extruded from our emblematic engravings — the Ornilhori/nclius Saradosem is the bird of love. We would not, however, dismiss the subject without adding in plain sincerity that the experiment so far certainly appears to have answered. Here are GOO young women and upwards who have been rescued from the dreary probabilities of English life for all persons in their class. They arc transported to a country of rude abundance. There is plenty of work, but there is also plenty of return for work. So they are honest and wellconducted, they need have little apprehension for the future of themselves and their children. As with the patriarchs of old, an abundant offspringis to them a source of prosperity, not a cause of wearing anxiety and ceaseless fear. If, as years roll on, their heads must assume the gray livery of toil, at least that toil will have been productive of happiness to themselve and to those they love best ; — a blessed consummation.