MORE IMMIGRANTS.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1184, 12 June 1874, Page 4

MORE IMMIGRANTS.

[WESTPORT EVENING STAIt.] The smart run of tho steamship Atrato, from England to Port Chalmers in 50 days, again gives satisfactory proof that for immigration purposes the employment of steam vessels may be made profitable, the extra cost of coal hcing counterbalanced by saving in the daily cost of provisioning so large a number of passengers. Unfortunately the vessel does not come with a clean bill of health, and tho proportion of deaths on tho voyage has been in excess of that among the fever stricken passengers of the Mongol. It is true the mortality has been among infauts, but the care of the invalids brought into port will entail much expense to both local and General Governments, and again create a feeling of uneasiness and insecurity among the people with whom the new coiners must soon associate. Coupled with the unsatisfactory intelligence that among recent arrivals in Port Lyttelton cases of smallpox are present, the feeling cannot be subdued that there must still exist a culpable laxity, either in tho selection of emigrants by the

home agents, or iti the accommodation provided them on board ship. Almost the only immigrant vessel coming into a New Zealand port for months past with the passengers in good health has been the "Wennington, coming to

Wellington; and in her case an exceptionally long passage was detrimental to the perfect success of an otherwise satisfactory voyage- In this case a vessel of less than nine hundred tons register brought nearly three hundred passengers, and came into port in excellent order, with only one record of death on her log-book, and that occurring from natural causes. The chief cause of her protracted voyage was the heavy cargo of railway iron injudiciously stowed on board in disproportion to lighter material. Yet the healthy condition of her passengers proved that even under the trial of a protracted voyage, careful selection at first, and the employment of officers experienced in passenger service, is sufficient to obviate many evils. In the case of the Mongol and Atrato the conditions appear to be reverssd. The selection of immigrants appears to haye been not too well made, and the chief points aimed at appear also to have been the crowding of a large number of passengers on board and their speedy transit from shore to shore, with little care for their physical comfort. Evils which may in time rectify themselves, but which for the present make many settlers in New Zealand chary of availing themselves of the nomination system of bringing out their friends from the home country.