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New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 706, 19 January 1853, Page 2

the zeal and alacrity with which he has set him- 1 self to investigate the case, though we must say he seems to have acted in the first instance with some degree of harshness towards the directors. Merelv because two adventurers, in pursuance of a fraudulent scheme, chose to advertise the names of these gentlemen, without the slightest evidence that they were connected with the concern, or that Montague and Tripe were in any way their agents, they were summoned to a police office to answer a cltarge which shaped itself in the direction of obtaining money under false pretences. It was too much to assume that an advertisement not contradicted was knowingly acquiesced in. There are thousands of most estimable persons whose names might be advertised as directors ot bubble companies, patrons of quack medicines, or referees of any other kind, without ever discovering the fact, unless some friend were to bring it to their notice. While on the subject of the treatment ot emigrants, we may mention that we have received many complaints written during the first day or two of the voyage, with reference to the overcrowded state of the ships and the had quality of the provisions. Doubtless, these complaints are to be received with considerable abatement. People who have lived all their lives on land are naturally slow to admit to themselves the necessary discomfort of a long sea voyage, and the poorer classes have during the last fevv years lived sufficiently well to make them fastidious in the article of food. Moreover, those who seek a new home in Australia often belong to the class of restless and discontented spirits to whom the present always is irksome, and the future full of exaggerated hopes never destined to be realised. Still, after due allowance has been made for all these things, we are compelled to believe that many of the complaints which we receive are not devoid of foundation, although we trust they are somewhat exaggerated. We hope that shipowners will waken in time to the danger of any neglect in these matters, and will not check a trade which promises to be so lucrative by adding to the discouragements of a long voyage and an unknown land the discomfort, disease, and even death, likely to arise from over-crowded or ill ventilated _ ships, and from coarse and unwholesome provisions. How highly the poor appreciate attention to their comfort on the voyage may be seen from the case of Mrs. Chisholm, who, having given up her plan of lending money to intending emigrants, is fully employed in superintending the accommodation of persons who pay their own passage on the single condition that their ships shall be fitted up and provisioned under her inspection. We have heard of no increase of the Government emigration department, though it would seem as if what was sufficient for last year could hardly be adequate to the wants of the present season. We trust that no ill-timed parsimony will prevent the employment of a sufficient staff of emigration officers to insure, as far as inspection can insure, the health and comfort of tne helpless class who are now trusting themselves to the frail security which the sad experience of American emigration informs us is to be found in the conscientious feelings of the owners of emigrant ships. The British farmer needs no protection, but the emigrant can hardly emigrate without it. Let Government go on as it has begun and protect this defenceless class, not merely from the harpies -who would plunder tliem oa. land, but from tliose who would starve or overcrowd them on the deep. Such services may not he so brilliant in recital, so well calculated to round off a period ■or elicit a cheer, as the compensation for burdens or the re-adjustment of taxation. They may not be so splendid as the speeches of Disraeli, nor so useful as the services of Major Beresford, but they will, at any rate, show that Government sympathies are better than its professions, and that, though willing to curtail the comforts of the poor for the sake of their landlords, they have no inclination to offer them up to the shortsighted avarice of crimping shipowners.