LORD STANLEY ON EMIGRATION.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 2, 5 August 1842, Page 4

LORD STANLEY ON EMIGRATION.

[We insert the following speech of Lord Stanley, believing it will he read with considerable interest.] Lord Stanley said, that with regard to the subject of emigration, he had received from different quarters various schemes of a most comprehensive and extensive character. He believed the house would allow that he was only discharging the duty which he owed to the public, in the office he had the honour to occupy, if he took the earliest opportunity, in the present session, of directing the attention of the House to two questions of great importance to different classes of emigrants, who, year after year, without any interposition on the part of government, were proceeding to distant lands, at once relieving the mother country of a superabundant population, and transferring their labour to other quarters, where, however, by their capital and their exertions, they augmented not only the resources of the colonies,' but also those of the mother country itself. He thought no questions could more intimately affect the interests of the various classes of emigrants, than those two questions to which he was now about to call their attention—the one affecting the poorer class, the other affecting those who possessed capital, which they were disposed to invest in the purchase of land in the colonies. The first referred to a better provision for the poorer emigrants against the frauds which were frequently practised upon them, and the distresses to which they were subjected from the present imperfect condition of the Passenger Acts; and the other to the inconvenience sustained by capitalists and persons purchasing land, from the constantly fluctuating system of the sale of land, particularly in the Australian colonies, and the different systems prevailing in those colonies. With regard to the first question, he thought the house was scarcely aware, the country certainly was not, of the extent to which emigration, without the assistance of government, was now habitually proceeding; and he must say, that those persons who contemplated and had recommended schemes of very extensive and systematic emigration and colonisation had, in every instance which had come under his observation, overlooked 'many most material circumstances affecting the vital interests of emigrants. He had seen no scheme

which did not, whilst it imposed enormous burdens on the country, appear likely at the same time to fail of accomplishing the probably benevolent designs of their promoters for advancing the interests of the emigrants. The amount of the emigration from the united kingdom during the last five years, without the assistance of Government, had been most extensive. During the last five years, with the exception of 1838, when the circumstances of our North American colonies almost entirely suspended emigration to that quarter, the average number of emigrants from the united kingdom had amounted to from 75,000 to 80,000 persons a-year. In 1840 the number of emigrants was no less than 90,743; and in the first three quarters of 1841 the number was 106,475. It might be deemed wild to attempt to regulate or to control this emigration ; but to endeavour to force it beyond the very large amount it had already reached, would, in his judgment, be not only impolitic, but might' be attended with ruinous results to those whom it was. their desire to serve. At one period it was deemed right to leave the system of emigration, as far as regarded regulation, to the owners and merchant vessels carrying passengers; it was supposed that emigrants would be sufficiently attentive to their own welfare ; and all restriction was considered impolitic in the extreme. The Passengers’ Act, had been in operation for a considerable number of years. The different acts on the subject were consolidated in 1824 ; in 1825 an amended act was passed; and in 1827, upon the recommendation of a committee on the subject of emigration, the act was repealed. When, however, the measure had been repealed, and the restrictions supposed to be unfavourable to emigration were removed, the frauds became so numerous, the abuses be* came so outrageous, the cases of cruelty Were so glaring, and the clamours were so loud, that within six months after the repeal of the act it was found necessary to introduce a more stringent measure, repeating the provisions of the former act with increased severity. Since that period the Passengers’ Act had been uninterruptedly in operation. In 1833, when he (Lord Stanley) last held office in the Colonial Department, a system was introduced by which emigration agents were established by Government in the principal ports of the kingdom, to assist persons desirous of emigrating, to give them advice and counsel, and to endeavour to check the frauds and abuses which extensively prevailed; and, notwithstanding all the imperfections of the present system, he believed the appointment of those agents was extremely beneficial, and contributed greatly to the protection of the poorer class of emigrants. Now, however, they had the advantage of legislating on this subject with the experience of eight or nine years, and with the benefit of the information which had been obtained by those agents, who had reported as to the inconveniences which now prevail, the modes by which their vigilance was frequently avoided, and the points in which the existing laws were deficient. The question was taken up by the noble' lord who preceded him (Lord Stanley) in the Colonial Department, and to that noble lord a report was addressed on this subject in July last, by the land and emigration commissioners. A subsequent report had been addressed to him (Lord Stanley) on the subject by the commissioners, who accompanied their report by a specification of the various provisions in the present law, of which they proposed a modification. They were, however, so much matters of detail, that he would not weary the patience of the house by going through them. The course he proposed to take would, he thought, be more convenient to the house, and enable the bill to pass without material or lengthened discussion in it; for, as the period for emigration commenced towards the latter end of March, it was important that the measure should speedily become law, or its operation would be ineffective as regarded the present season. He proposed, before they proceeded to the consideration of the bill in committee, to lay on the table of the house the two reports of the land and emigration commissioners, with the clauses of the existing act, which they proposed to modify, the alterations they contemplated, and a statement of the abuses which the commissioners had ascertained to prevail, and horn gentlemen would then have an opportunity of examining in detail: the different recommendations,. He proposed; to make some alterations in the existing law with regard to the space required for each passenger; and also to regulate the amount of provisions and water according to the estimated duration of the voyage, and the climate through which it was intended to pass. He would propose to appropriate to passengers a larger amount of space, where vessels were expected to enter the tropics, and more limited space, where the voyages were of short duration, and confined within temperate climes. The house w£ts probably aware that the present Passengers’ Act applied only* to emigration from the united kingdom, but a supplementary bill had been passed applying to the short between the West India Islands, to which many of the provisions of the former act could have no reference.

[Owing to press of matter, we are under the necessity of postponing the rest of Lord S.’s speech till our next publication.]