CO885-(1-2) — Page 278

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference

CRC.O. 885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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Australia by this Board during the years 1848 and

1849, have been, to

New [Sydney

South

Wales Port Philip.

13,478

12,343

25,821

11,097

36.918

South Australia

From each of these colonies a quarterly return is received, which states among other things the suffi- ciency of the rate of immigration with reference to the demand for labour. In the returns from New South Wales for the last quarter of 1848, it is stated that any increase of the existing rate of immigration to Sydney or Port Philip, which to the former some- what exceeded three ships, and to the latter some- what exceeded two ships per month, would not be advisable. And in the return for the first quarter of 1849, the latest which has been received, the demand for immigration is again fixed for Sydney at three ships per month, and for Port Philip at two ships. In the return also from South Australia for the two first quarters of 1849, it is stated that the present rate of immigration is somewhat beyond the demand, al- though a railroad which is in contemplation, and the formation of smelting establishments, will afford increased means of employment. These returns are no doubt opposed both to the popular belief in this country that the Australian colonies offer an inex. haustible field for the employment of labourers, and to the vehemence with which in the colonies an increase of immigration has been constantly de- manded. They are, however, the returns of the local authorities, whose peculiar business it is to collect information on these points, and who if they have any bias at all must be biassed in favour rather of a large than a small immigration. And when it is consi- dered that the population of New South Wales and South Australia on the 1st of January, 1848, was

only

New

Sydney District

169,043

Suth

Wales

Port Philip District

35,966

South Australia

38,666.

243,675

and that to these there has been added in two

years

New (Sydney District South •

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13,478 or upwards of 7 per cent.

Wales Port Philip District South Australia..

12,348 or upwards of 34 per cent. 11,097 or upwards of 28 per cent.

The loan

such a result is not to be wondered at. which has been recently negotiated in Sydney for immigration purposes is not for fresh immigration, but to repay a portion of the large advances already made for this colony out of Imperial funds.

Nor is it possible to expect that British North America will for several years be capable of taking off any very large number of the labouring classes of this country. In their general reports on emigration at the Parliamentary Paper. February, end of 1848, both Mr. Buchanan, the emigration agent at Quebec, and Mr. Hawke, the emigration agent

1849, p. 31, 32.

• It is also stated in the annual report of the Emigration Agent in New Brunswick, which has reached

at Kingston, stated that for unskilled labour there was little or no demand, and that even for artisans and mechanics the prospects were not encouraging. Nothing has since occurred to render this report inapplicable to the present time; and although it may fairly be expected that the development of the great natural resources of Canada will gradually offer employment to a much larger annual immigra- tion, no such result can be expected immediately *.

It is then in the United States that a home must

us within the last few days, "that be found for the great bulk of the emigrants who there is not the least prospect of a demand either for ordinary or

annually leave Great Britain, and if measures were

skilled labour, the resident popu- thought necessary to increase that annual emigration, lation being quite sufficient to meet present requirements."

1847

1848

1849

Average

258,270 248,084 290,000

3) 796,354

265,451

it would be to the United States that the increase must be directed. That such an increased emigra- tion would find employment in the United States there seems no reason whatever to doubt. The only questions are, first, whether the circumstances of Great Britain are such as to require an increased emigration; and, secondly, whether a grant of money for that purpose, out of the Imperial funds, would produce a commensurate effect.

On the first point we have no information in this office which would entitle us to express a positive opinion. We may, however, observe, that the emigra- tion of the three last years has amounted to 796,354 persons, giving an average of 265,451 persons per annum. This amount is nearly equal to the whole annual increase of the United Kingdom. But look- ing at the question as connected with Ireland only, the result is much more striking. Assuming nine- tenths of the emigration from Liverpool to be Irish

1847

214,970

1848 1849

177.720

197,228

3) 589,918

Average

196,639

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(which is a low estimate), the number of Irish who have emigrated during the last three

years

has been 598,918, equal to an annual average emigration of 196,639 persons. But the increase of population in Ireland between 1831 and 1841, as it appears on the Census Returns, was 407,723; and the emi- gration during the same years seems to have been 455,236, making a total increase of 862,958, or 86,295 a-year. Assuming the increase to have been at the same rate since 1841, it would give for the eight years, to the close of 1849,-707,480, or 88,435 per annum, The emigration, therefore, on the average of the last three years, exceeded the increase of the population by 108,204 souls per When it is also taken into account that the emigration comprises a large proportion of those who are in the vigour of life, and on whom the increase of population mainly depends, it may be assumed that its influence in checking such increase is even greater than the mere figures would'imply.

annum).

year

We now proceed to the second question, viz., whether a grant of money out of Imperial funds would produce an increase of emigration propor- tionate to its amount. We append a Table, show- ing, as nearly as can be calculated, the whole amount expended by or on behalf of the labouring classes in emigration during the year 1849. It will be seen that this expenditure reached last the vast sum of 1,715,000l. The only portion of this sum derived from public funds, properly so called, is the 220,0001. expended on Australian and Cape emigration; the balance, amounting to 1,489,000/., with the exception of a small sum, paid out of poor-rates, has been drawn from private sources. There are no means of ascertaining how much may have been contributed by landlords, by charitable individuals, or by the emigrants them- selves; but we have returns which show that a sum of upwards of 540,000l., equal to more than three- fourths of the whole sum paid for passages to North America, was either paid in the United States, or remitted through mercantile houses by individuals already settled in America, to en- able their friends and relatives in Ireland to join them. This return is necessarily imperfect, since it takes no notice of the sums remitted through private channels, of which it is impossible