THE AGENT-GENERAL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4481, 30 July 1875, Page 2

THE AGENT-GENERAL.

There were yesterday laid upon the tables of both Houses of Parliament copies of a lengthy communication from Sir Julius Vogel to the Agent-General, in which he said : —" You are aware that the Government have referred to me a large number of questions and a great mass of correspondence relating io emigation, and have asked me to give instructions upon the whole subject, as well as upon many matters relating to your department. In discharging the duty thus devolved on me, I desire to abstain as much as possible from reviving old controversies, excepting to illustrate the alterations I propose." Sir Julius then goes on to give his instructions at some length under diii'erent heads, the following i being the more important : constitution of your office. It has forcibly presented itself to me that you require a much more complete system of j recording documents than you have at present. The imperfection of your records is due partly, perhaps, to the various officers having acted too independently, and partly to the practice which appears to prevail of personal communications where written memoranda would be preferable. I think you will find it most desirable, and very efficacious in remedying defects, to clearly notify to all the officers that Mr. Kennaway, secretary to the department, occupies just the same position as the undersecretary of a Government department holds, on the one hand to the Minister at its head, and on the other to the various officers. You should, for administrative purposes, regard your department as one under a Minister. The Secretary of the department should be considered to hold direct relation with the different officers ; and the business should pass through his hands. I shall refer separately to some of the officers when I deal with the changes I propose to introduce. But I must at once say that the rank and the range of duties of each officer ought to be clearly denned ; and that it would bo well for each officer distinctly to understand his position as regards both points. SURGICAL EXAMINATION. You are Mvaro that there is a strong opinion in the colony that the surgical examination of intending emigrants has been insufficient ; and that it has been urged upon the Government to require that the examination, in each case, should be thorough and exhaustive, modelling it -upon the plan adopted for life assurance, or | for the passing of recruits, if not carrying it to the same extent as is done in those instances. In forwarding to you recommendations to that effect, I guarded myself from expressing an j appoval of them to their full extent ; and I I know that you are o£ opinion that such an examination would interfere with obtaining desirable emigrants. I have, therefore, to instruct you to adopt a medium plan. On the one hand, you should recollect that the colony, which proposes to incur large expense in sending out emigrants, has the right to require tho knowledge that they are healthy persons : on the other hand, that, provided the colony is duly protected, there is no desire to insist upon anything that can be offensive to the feelings of intending emigrants. Whilst, then, you should insist upon a satisfactory examination, you should feel yourself at liberty to direct that it be modified to such an extent as you consider desirable, from the forms generally employed in behalf of assurance companies. In other words, I mean that you should prepare a code of instructions to surgeons, setting forth particularly the nature and extent of the examination you think desirable ; and that you should make regulations by which surgeons would be guided in reporting to you, and by which you would guide yourself in case of a report being informal or not satisfactoi-y. There is very great difficulty in the way of payins; for such reports. If the applicant pays the fee, the surgeon may not consider that he is employed by the department ; and if you directly employ him, there is the danger of having to pay for the examination of many applicants who are rejected. If you make it a condition that you will pay only for those who are accepted, aninducement to report favorably will beofferedu It huik a. medium course may well be adopted: that you should pay as part of the fee a small sum, for which it would not be ti orth the while of a surgeon to seek to make examinations, but which would enable him to consider that you were employing him, as well as that he was employed by the persons he was examining. I understand from Mr. Carter that surgeons receive from Is. to 2s. 6d. from each intending emigrant for the examination and certificate you now require. I think you might safely undertake to pay Is. Cd. for each report based upon the principles laid down by you ; and that you should make that payment whether

the applicant is rejected or accepted. If you should find—as might be the case, though I do not think it would be—that some surgeons were making a business of giving reports for the sake of the fees, you could easily inform such practitioners that you would no longer j accept reports from them. The surgeons should be required to post their reports to you direct ; or in the event of your deputing any j one to visit the locality, to hand them direct to I your officer. SURGICAL EXAMINATION OP EMIGRANTS IN DEPOT. Your letters respecting the Blackwall depot have not altered my opinion that it would have been desirable that establishment should be in the hands of the Government. I continue to be of opinion that it is desirable you should have the appointment of the manager of the depot; and that he should be a medical man, so as to discharge the duties of doctor, as well as of general superintendent. His examination of persons in the depot should, in most cases, be directed to ailments that may have presented themselves after the date of the first examination in applicant's districts, upon which you have based your approval of them as emigrants : that is to say, where the first examination had been of a satisfactory character, he would not require to go over the same ground again. In case, however, he should find that the examination and report upon -which you had based your acceptance of an emigrant were manifestly unsatisfactory, he should state the circumstances to you, and you should be at liberty, if you thought it necessary, to reject the emigrant. A case illustrative of my meaning is that of the two persons afflicted with congenital deafness and dumbness, who were recommended by a surgeon in the country, and who were about to be shipped for Otago, only that, as you will recollect, I strongly represented to you that you should not, under any circumstances permit such a thing—that it would be better for us to pay any amount as compensation, rather than to risk the possibility of the colony having to support future generations of persons similarly afflicted. In that case, the surgeon who examined the two persons omitted to inform you of their state ; and when they had reached the depot you were reluctant to refuse them passages to the colony, more especially as they had been nominated. It is clear, however, that it is preferable to pay compensation, or to do almost anything, rather than to send to the colony those who are evidently undesirable emigrants. IMMIGRANTS TO GIVE PROMISSORY NOTES. [Sir Julius "Vogel gives at some length under this head his reasons for reverting to the promissory note system. As, however, free immigration has been again established, it is unnecessary to go into this part of the matter.] GERMAN CONTRACT. [German and Scandinavian immigration is practically put an end to.] IMMIGRANTS TO BE SENT TO THEIR DESTINATION. I have to- repeat the instruction previously given, that you are not to ship emigrants for ports other than those of their destination, except .in very extreme or exceptional cases. Sending people to one province in order that they may be there shipped for another, causes in all cases great inconvenience, and often necessitates large expense; and the plan is looked upon with general and great disfavor by the province to which the immigrants ought ultimately to proceed. Of course, you must still observe the instructions about immigrants for Marlborough, Westland, and Nelson. BUSINESS OF YOUR DEPARTMENT. I have to ask you to cause to be prepared, and to forward regularly to the colony, a fourweekly report as to the proceedings of your department. Copies of all correspondence between your department and the various departments of the Imperial Government, should be sent to the colony each month. I have strongly to urge that you will use your best endeavors to give effect to these instructions.