IRELAND.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 761, 30 July 1853, Page 3

IRELAND.

THE EXODUS. (From The Times Coi respondent.) Dublin, April 11.—There is no escaping the oft-repeated task of directing attention to the wholesale depopulation which, for good or evil, is precipitating a moral revolution in Ireland, such as but a few years ago could scarcely have entered into the imagination of the wildest theorist. But there is no choice in the matter. The exodus is the all-engrossing topic of the Irish journals, and every post brings fresh accounts of the continuous flight of the people from the mother country. From the port of Waterford, on Saturday, no less than 000 comfortable looking passengers took shipping for Liverpool, there to embark either for America or Australia. According to one of the Cork papers, “A vessel in port has been chartered for 500/. to take out emigrants to New York. Last year a similar vessel could have been had fir 3001. Passageo are therefore high to the United States, 51. 10s. being generally expected. Emigrants, when leaving, should give a preference to vessels sailing from this port, rather than Liverpool, for, though the passage money may be higher, it is cheaper in the end, taking into account the trans-shipping and re-shipping of luggage, loss of time, board, lodging, &c. ’ Turning westward, it is stated in a Galway journal that the constantly-increasing tide of emigration knows not a single day’s cessation : ‘‘Hundreds are leaving this neighbourhood daily, and yesterday morning a great number of intelligent girls of an bumble but decent rank in life, went off by the train. Labour in every part of the country is becoming exceedingly scarce, and even the very inefficient persons who have been previously tenants of the workhouse, are now being eagerly sought after and employed.” And again, as regards the “ drain” from Ulster, a writer in the Western Star enters into some details of the emigration from Antrim, Down, and Donegal, and proceeds to say—- “ Yon are making the welkin ring as regards the emigration from the South and West, and there is no doubt that good reason you have so to do : but I can assure you that our population in this province is going in as full volume, though, perhaps, from the comparative silence of the local journals, 1 !! you and others may be inclined to doubt the fact. It is but too true that the industrious Protestant yeomanry of Ulster are quitting the land of their birth by thousands, and I have little doubt that before many months roll over, the fact will be not only ackuow’e Iged but felt —keenly felt—in the diminished resources of the labour market, and the consequent advance in the rate of wages.” Meanwhile the sinews of emigration—the remittances of money—are keeping pace with and sustaining the movement, so that nothing seems likely to be wanting to perfect the revolution now in progress. In relation to this branch of the question, the L meritk Examiner has the following remarkable statement: “We understand that there was remitted to Ireland last year through one Irish bank (the Provincial Bank of Ireland) by parties in America, to enable their friends to emigrate thither, no less a sum than GOO,OOO/. Moreover, Ibis amount was remitted in sums under 4/., and averaging 31. 9s.— just, one might say, the price of a passage over. But we understand the truth to be that in some instances the same party has made three or four remittances—a fact which proves how eager they are to help their friends over the ocean, and how eagerly they avail themselves of the means to help those whom they leave behind, never waiting beyond the lime when circumstances enabled them to earn a remittance before they make it. We shall not at present dilate upon this subject, further than to say that the statistics we have set down, and which may be relied upon as authentic, show that one million and a-balf, at least, has reached Ireland through all the banks and other channels for (he purpose of promoting emigration. Thus we see bow the emigration is maintained, and herein we have an assurance of its continuance so strong as to forbid wo should either overestimate its importance or calculate on its cessation.”

Scarcely less remarkable are the circumstances narrated in the subjoined extract from the Waterford Mail :

“ Each post brings us fresh indications of the genuine Irish character, in the remittances which have been transmitted to this country from those who have emigrated either to America or Australia, whether to repay the sums given to enable them to arrive at one or other of those lands of promise, as remembrances of love and duty, or as means for those whom they have left behind in the workhouse to follow their example. The reports of the several boards of guardians throughout the country, our own included, sufficiently attest the latter fact, while the public press fully records the other instances referred to. In this county the sums received have been as numerous as they were unexpected and welcome to the recipients; and many an aged mother’s or father’s heart has been made to sing with joy, and many a cold hearth has been enlightened by the timely offering of filial affection. Some time back we noticed the receipt, by a poor woman in Villierstown, from her sou, who had emigrated to Australia, of the sum of 10Z. Within these few days she has had another IOZ. from the same source; and another poor woman at Dromore got two checks for 20Z. each, in the Villierstown post office ; and BZ. were received by Mr. Christopher Ussher, of Campliire, from a man who had lived on that gentleman’s estate, in trust for his two children, to have them sent out to him to America. ‘Scarcely a week elapses,’ says a respected correspondent writing from Yillio'rstown, ‘that four or five individuals in this locality do not receive money orders to afford them an opportunity of leaving for America—a course which is invariably and strenuously recommended by the senders.’ The consequent drain upon our labouring rural population is such as might be expected, in the townland of Woodhousc we are informed not a single day labourer is to be found; in the townland of Aglish there are but two ; in Villierstown there are nine ; but those are to take their departure in a few days for the far west. Whole families arc preparing to emigrate to America, and the tide of self expatriation in 1853 promises to flow as full, considering the population that is left, as in any preceding year. A poor miner from the neighbourhood ofßonraahon, emigrated some two years ago to America, where, finding himself realising a fortune, he paid the passage money of his wife and children, whom he left in this country ; he also sent her (about eight weeks since) 53Z. to enable them to get out. She accordingly, went, and in a few days after her arrival there, sent home SZ. to buy clothes for the little ragged, pi ay mantes of her children. This, she said'," was a proof of her remembrance of the friends at home.” if