PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE
Reference :-
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2
TLC.O.
ניויויייז זו הד
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says,) "to the class of women that are sent out as Government emigrants, at "Icast those that were with me. The majority of the 50 I had were unfit for a colonial life, inasmuch as few ever saw or knew what a farming life was. Several colonists came on board to engage female servants, who were to take charge of cows, and make butter and cheese, and out of the entire 50 there The majority of was not one who had ever done such a thing as milk a cow. "the young women aboard were either London servants or dressmakers, a class "of people not required in the colony to any great amount, many of whom had "to go into service after arrival, and some of whom have been found totally "unfit for such a life already. On our arrival in port, I found it a difficult "matter for many of the women to get places, from the number of females who "had just come in before our arrival; and many people have a great dislike to 64 engage female servants from on board, in consequence of the bad character "numbers bear, and earn after their arrival.”
A Report from Mr. Merewether, the Immigration Agent at Sydney, dated 5th May, 1848, shows also that the colonists were not satisfied with females professing to be domestic servants, but ignorant of their business; and in a late return from the same colony, sempstresses have been objected to as not properly eligible for a free passage.
Third. In respect to the care to be exercised in the selection in this country, there can be no doubt that this will be at once the most important and the most difficult portion of the scheme. The most important, because on its right per- formance depends the whole success of the undertaking; the most difficult, be- cause it will be necessary in every case to prove a negative, of which scarcely any one but the party most interested can have a certain knowledge.
As to the manner in which this task is to be accomplished, the Commissioners do not venture to offer an opinion; but they will state the grounds on which they attach so much importance to it. In doing so they will confine themselves to questions connected with the passage, the Association being as competent as themselves to estimate the importance of securing for the scheme the good will of the colonists, by affording no ground of complaint as to the moral character of the emigrants.
In respect, then, to the passage, the experience of the Commissioners leads them to believe that its success or failure depend much more on the good or bad con- duct of the women on board ship than on any other circumstance. The control over women on board ship must, of necessity, be almost entirely of a moral nature, any penal control being, from the circumstances of the case, nearly inapplicable. At the same time the circumstances offer to those who are not restrained by prin- ciple or previous training peculiar temptations to misconduct. Their aggregation, the want of regular employment, the lassitude produced by tropical heat, are all incentives, more or less, to irregularity. From these or other causes, quarrels, bad language, insubordination, and immorality, have, the Commissioners regret to say, arisen in some of the ships sent out by them, notwithstanding the most anxious care on their part in the selection of the emigrants. And that it requires but a small number of bad subjects to produce such effects is shown by the example of the "Eliza," in which the Commissioners last year consented to send out 13 girls from the Marylebone workhouse. These girls, one of whom was dismissed from the ship at Plymouth, so misconducted themselves that the surgeon, writing, after they had been at sea six weeks, says:-"I cannot find words strong cough to give "you an idea of all the trouble we have had, still have, and are likely to have to "the end of the voyage, with those women, or rather fiends in human shape, "from the Marylebone workhouse." He then goes on to describe them as a nuisance to all on board-as resisting all control-as using the most disgusting language as requiring the utmost exertion to prevent their communication with the sailors--and finally, as having excited the sailors to mutiny.
"
This, though a remarkable, is not a solitary instance and it may also serve to illustrate the difficulty of ascertaining the real character of young women under such circumstances. Before consenting to grant passages to these persons. the Commissioners required and obtained the most positive testimonials to cha- racter from the parochial authorities, including the chaplain of the workhouse, as well as from their last employers. Every girl was thien separately examined by an officer of this department, and finally a member of this Board visited the lip before she left Deptford. Nevertheless, before the ship reached Plymouth they had begun to misconduct themselves; and before they reached the Line, had produced the state of affairs described in the surgeon's letter above quoted,
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Paper, No. 616, oft
The parish authorities, no less than the Commissioners, were no doubt misled as to the character of these women; but if such was the case with reference to a small number who had been for some time under the superintendence of the parish, what hope is there that equal mistakes will not occur in the case of the numerous candidates who may be expected to come forward under the proposed scheme, and whose isolated position will render it most difficult to ascertain their antecedents and dispositions? And, in estimating the importance of this point, it must not be forgotten that the ill effects of such misconduct do not cease even on the arrival of the ship at its destination; it affixes a stigma to all who have been unfortunate enough to come out in the same vessel, which has been known to operate disadvantageously against those who may themselves have been blameless. So great indeed have the difficulties of conducting an emigration of single females been found in practice, that for many years it was discontinued by the Government, and no young unmarried woman was sent out unless accompanying her parents or some married relations or friends. In 1833, however, an emigration of single women was in progress. The emigrants from England were selected by a Com- Vide Parliamentary mittee of gentlemen in London; those from Ireland by the Irish Government, 1834. assisted by a Government officer, and were sent out partly at the public expense. The scheme was at first hailed with cordiality both in this country and in the colony, and the females who arrived in the first ships obtained situations with case. Gradually, however, suspicions arose as to the character of the women so sent out, and at last inquiries brought to light the fact that, notwithstanding the care exercised by the Committee in London and the Irish Government, frauds had been practised by parties anxious to obtain the boon of a free passage, and persons of bad character had managed to obtain passages in each ship. The result was, that after six ships had reached New South Wales-four from England and two from Ireland--the local government requested that the emigration might be brought to a close. In each of the ships a considerable number of the emi- grants turned out to be different in character from what they had been represented, and unsuited to the wants of the colonists. The two Irish ships contained the greatest proportion of well-conducted women. But in the best of the English ships, 52 out of 226 women were complained of, and 41 of these were stated to be common prostitutes. Nor did this failure appear to have arisen from any want of care on the part of the gentlemen who had undertaken the selection of the emi- grants. The agent who selected them is stated, in one instance to have travelled into many of the agricultural counties in England, to obtain from the magistrates and ministers of religion country girls and families acquainted with farming. Every woman was obliged to appear before the Committee before she embarked, and produce a certificate of good character from two respectable householders, or the minister of the parish, and also to undergo a personal examination before the Committee as to her eligibility. The following extract from the Report of the Committee of the Legislative Council of New South Wales affords the most unex- ceptionable evidence on this subect:-" Your Committee" (they say) "cannot
· but conclude that all accessible means of securing proper female emigrants were employed and exhausted by the London Committee, and that if they have failed "in the entire success which was justly due to their exertions, the partial failure "must be attributed to other causes than the want of due care and circumspec- tion in the discharge of the very troublesome and responsible duties they had generously undertaken to perform. It would rather appear to your Committee "that there is an inherent difficulty in the original plan-a difficulty bordering upon impossibility of procuring the emigration of single females, combining "all the requisite qualifications of moral character and useful acquirements, “ such as alone would render them accessions of real advantage to the colony."
The Commissioners would earnestly invite the attention of the Association to the whole correspondence connected with this emigration, which will be found in the House of Commons' Papers, Nos. 616 of 1834, 76 of 1836, and 358 of 1837, and especially to the Report of the Committee of the Legislative Council, from which the above extract has been taken.*
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Fourth. What has been said above as an intimate connexion with the question to be next considered; viz., the means of conveying the emigrants to the colonics. It has been suggested that they might be conveyed to the colonies in small parties in the ships chartered by the Commissioners. Independently, however, of the
Copies of the Papers No. 616 of 1834, and No. 358 of 1837, are annexed.
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