FEMALE EMIGRATION.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 89, 11 September 1863, Page 6 (Supplement)

FEMALE EMIGRATION.

(From the London Times.) Female emigration, as at present conducted, is evidently a short cut to ruin, j The evidence wnicli irresistably drives us ! to this con^lufcion comes from no hostile witness. The foremost promoter of the movement, by her simple narrative of facts, herself pronounces its condemnation. Some time since Miss Rye left England in charge of a cargo of .young woman, duly shipped on board the John Duncan for New Zealand. The voyage was, in a nautical point of view, a prosperous one ; but, from her own avowal it is only too obvious that during its progress there was shipwreck made of many immortal sonls. The heait sickens at her recital of the state of things on hoard the vessel, and the position .of these girls on their arrival in the strange land. She tells us of " a broached cargo and intoxication," which was •• the inevi table result of only a few boards dividing gin cases and puncheons from men wearied with fullness of bread and abundance of idleness," and hints with sufficient distinctness to make us shudder at the perils of the " helpless woman" who were environed by the drunken horde.' She glances at the additional evils which sprang in this case from the presence of a matron, who 'proved unsuited to her situation," and avows her full belief in the truth of the fearful tales which are told of the immoralities committed on board emigrant vessels. She informs us that the home provided at Dunedin for the female emigrants, while they are waiting for situations, is a barrack, which they share with the Otago constabulary, there being a door of communication between the quarters of the girls and those of the police, and the only separation between, them being by a low zinc palmg — and she adds that the upper floor of this barrack is occupied by women who have openly adopted a licentious vocation. Such being the nature of the abode to which these young women are consigned, no one can be surprised at Miss Rye's intimation that there are already two or three illegitimate children on the premises, and that there is a momentary expectation of two or three additions to their number. Such, is the terrible reality which takes the place of a golden vision. Exposure to the corrupting influence of surrounding debauchery on the voyage out, and a home shared with harlots and policemen on reaching the colony, are the rounds in the ladder by which domestic servants may climb to forty, and governesses to sixty pounds a year? We cannot believe that with this horrifying but unhappily faithful picture staring him in the face any father or brother will become an accomplice in sending daughter or sister to probable perdition. No doubt a great many might pass unscathed through the ordeal — but the risk is too great to be atoned for by any recompense.

•A younff * girl* freshly , emancipated from the restraints of home"discipline, must possess very exceptionalstrength of character'and fixityof good resolution to * resist "the temptations whfeh'thu's come upon her coincidenlly^withher newly-acquired free"dom. -Under the most- favorable circumstances such a, liberation from restraint brings with it grave .attendant dangers; but when it is joined/with idleness' and promiscuous mingling during a -long seavoyage with men who- have nothing, to do and too much to drink, the pe^il issoenor-, mousithat any one who wilfully; exposes it to any woman over whom he has a lawful control can scarcely be acquitted of being ah accessory-tothe murder of a soul: The menaced ■-Victim may escape — but that chance is not to be taken into account, and an awful responsibility is incurred by those who thrust her into the midst of the snares, -or refrain from keeping her 1 beyond their reach by all the means within their power. Benevolent ladies like" Miss -Rye— whose good intentions we cannot for a moment doubt, much as we question her judgment—are a great deal to apt to judjje of others of themselves. Having- passed the heydey of youth and passion, feeling in themselves no traces of., the human weaknesses which have been schooled out of them, not only by years' but by thought .and moral training, and moreover so preoccupied by large .schemes, which they honestly believe will be for the benefit of their kind, that there is no roqm left in their minds for lower, but still natural:impulses to get into play, they have a constant tendency to forget that weakness and frailty are the ordinary attributes of humanity. If this were not her case, Miss Rye would not content herself with deploring the evils of the existing arrangements for female emigration, and asking for the amendment, at the same time encouraging by all means in her power the continued export of younjc women to the colonies. She would wash, her bands of all connection with the scheme, pending the continuance of the existing state of «hings,and Solemnly ! warn her countrywomen 'against rushing headlong to their destruction. In her default it becomes our duty to urge this serious admonition. While indiscriminate association of the sexes, and drunkenness, and a total absence of any control which can serve as a substitute for parental supervision, prevail on board emigrant ships, and while girls on their arrival in the new country are not only left to their own devices, but moreover plunged into the midst of active evil agencies, every father who cares for the salvation of his daughter, every brother who values the honor of his sister, should strain every nerve to hold them back from the brink of ! the Maelstrom of female emigration. Still, it is urged, some of our colonies are suffering grievously from the under preponderance of their male population, and the- restoration of an equilibrium is essential at once to their present moral welfare and to their future stability and progress. We are quite aware of this, and fully appreciate the importance of putting an end, as speedily as possible, to a state of things in all respects so disadvantageous. But we are by no means prepared to tolerate the cure of one evil by the creation of another of even greater magnitude. W e cannot consent that hundreds of young women shall be exposed to the risk of moral depravation and utter ruin of body and soul, in order that the colonial market may be stocked with female labor, and bachelor colonists may find wives ready to their hands. Everybody is aware that the greater number of the girls who go out alone are stimulated by the hopes of getting husbands rather than of finding situations, and we are by no means satisfied j that the hasty marriages which they contract in their new home, under the guidance of their own inexperience, and with no relatives near to warn and advise, are likely to prove in the end a blessing. It is by no means clear to us that the emigration of lar^e bodies of single young women ein ever be so organised as to be freed in ihe long run from imminent and appalling dangers, and certainly no machinery has yet been proposed which promises to attain this desirable result. All that appears t) us feasible and free from peril under existing circumstances is to encourage the emigration of families, and to induce men who have already made their own footing 1 in the colonies to send home for their female relatives, who might make the voyage out under the care of some married women among their fellowpassenpers. A great many single men who now emigrate alone haVe sweathearts whom they have been prevented from marrying in England by lack of means. But in these young dependencies a wife is not a charge but an assistance to the laborer ; and in a vast number of cases the emigrantwould be a great deal better off in a pecuniar}' point of view — be would always be i better of morally — if he took a partner with him to his adopted home. So far as single women are concerned, Miss Rye evidently wishes us to send out the flower of our female population. She protests against the sending out of "wild girls an. l girls who never did like work," and plainly indicates that she wants precisely the girls we want to keep in England, and who have the best chance of doing well at home. But we apprehend that ilm good lady's aspirations must yield to the operation of the general law. Emigration does not absorb our best men, nor is ifc likely to swallow up our best women. It would no doubt be pleasant for a benevolent projector to colonise a little Utopia with the pick of the English community — but we must be pardoned the selfishness which makes us rejoice at the fact that these are precisely the people who stay at home. With women, as with men, it is tee restless spirits and those who need stronger incentives to exertion than they find in the mother country who are most fitly drafted to its dependencies. But one thing should be- insisted on — that no single girls be sent out without some one to look after them on the voyage, and some relatives or friends to receive them when they land. The most ardent well-wisher of the colonies cannot consent that they should augment their prosperity by the aid of the chance waifs and strays wiaich escape destruction in a huge hecatomb of human souls.