CO885-5 — Page 87

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EMIGRATION.

No. 1.

E. T. WAKEFIELD, Esq., to the RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF DERBY,

Union Club, Trafalgar Square,

January 1883.

MY LORD,

I TRUST your Lordship will pardon my again bringing before you a subject of great importance, which in 1881 I submitted to your Lordship in the form of a pamphlet.

Your Lordship did me the honour to peruse it, and wrote expressing your views on it.

In it I advocated a scheme of emigration at once State-assisted and self-supporting,

as the only effectual means of effecting the permanent pacification of Ireland.

As the pamphlet may now have passed from your Lordship's recollection, I beg to

send another copy,* adding that I received very many interesting letters from leading men,

every instance favourable to the scheme and my advocacy of it.

in

I have reason to believe that this pamphlet, and my assiduous exertions in other ways in favour of the scheme, has been instrumental in no small degree in leading up public opinion to its present favourable attitude towards emigration generally, and State- assisted emigration in particular, as the one effectual remedy for Ireland.

Emigration by families was, I believe, first advocated in this pamphlet, pointing out as it does the baneful effects of the kind of emigration hitherto practised in Ireland, the bitter fruits of which we have been reaping, and will continue to reap, so long as it is forced on the Irish people.

With your Lordship's permission I will venture to assume that all my arguments in favour of this measure are simply restated in this letter, and I will limit myself herein to a somewhat fuller statement of the scheme itself.

The SCHEME may be briefly stated as follows:-

1. That the Government should purchase from the Colonial Governments suitably

situated tracts of land in Australia.

2. Divide them into homesteads of 80 acres each.

3. Build thereon durable houses of wood or concrete.

4. Remove to them such emigrant families as choose to go voluntarily.

5. Provide each homestead with farming implements and seeds for a first crop,

and, where necessary, open credits at district stores for the families' support till the first crop.

6. The homesteads, with an annual fee farm rent of 28. 6d. per acre, or such other sum as will in each case pay 4 per cent. on the cost incurred in the families' settlement, redeemable by the emigrants.

7. The average cost of emigrating each family and its settlement, if conducted

on a large scale by a Government, would, it is estimated, amount to about 2001. [See App. No. 1.]

8. No rent to be payable the first two years, half the rent the third year, and the full rent the fourth year.

The ships

ways

9. The emigrants should go straight from their old homes to their new ones. taking out their agricultural implements and parts of their houses, and in many other great economy could be effected by such an emigration conducted on a large scale with a command of capital. It is the decided opinion of very experienced colonists that with judicious management that interest at the rate specified would be amply secured on the outlay if charged on each homestead, and would also be readily redeemed in a few years by the emigrants.

10. There appear to be methods of working such a scheme either—

a. By a board of commissioners appointed by and responsible to the Government partly resident in Ireland and partly resident on the estates in Australia, to whom all the details of the plan would be confided within certain lines previously agreed on; or

b. By a commercial company, to whom the Government would advance a large portion, if not all, of the required capital, giving them a pecuniary interest in the successful administration of the funds within certain limits. In the latter case commercial men of high standing would no doubt be found equal to the

• Not printed.

A 2

R 6008. 75-3/83. G. 58. Wt, 23094. E. & S.

PUBLIC RECORD

OFFICE

Reference :-

CO. 885 /

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON!

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Serial No.

From or to whom.

Date.

Subject.

Page.

1

E. T. Wakefield, Esq.

Jan. 18, 1893 Submitting observations on his scheme of State-sided Irish emigration, as set forth in his pamphlet of 1881.

3

2

Ditto

Feb. 28, 1883

Submitting observations to show that his

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scheme of emigration is “

the only measure

家

capable of bringing about the permanent "pacification of Ireland."