The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-03-13 00:00:00

Ell IGRA 2ION.

ls times of trade depression the emigration
question naturally comes to the fore, and
just now it is receiving practical considera
tion. Hitherto the ehief direction of the more
or less copious streams of population that
have flowed out from Britain to new lands
has largely been left to interested parties,
such as agents of steamship or land com-
panies, and consequently numbers of poor
families have been indused to proceed to
places already overstocked with labour which
is their only capital. Hence untold disap-
pointment, suffering, and misery have ensued.
Knowledge as to available emigration delds
is far more general than it was ; • but even
now intending deserters from the mother-
land find themselves often seriously at a loss
to make up their minds where to go, because
of the difficulty encountered in securing
really reliable information respecting the
state of the colonial labour markets. Doubt-
less, too, there are many who, disheartened
by unsatisfactory enquiries and the conse-
quent uncertainty, are altogether deterred
from putting into practice their desire to
seek fortune, or at any rate comparative
comfort in fresh scenes and far countries.
This is but natural, for those whose past
lives have been confined to a somewhat
narrow sphere could hardly be expected to
hazard their whole on a serious movement
such as emigration under unknown condi-
tions. and with no sort of safety as to the
issue. But there is the fact; given an ordin-
ary labourer or artisan, disheartened with
long spells of compulsory cessation from
remunerative occupation in Britain, and
willing to try his luck beyond seas, such a
man is at this present either dependent
almost entirely upon the often far from
accurate reports of acquaintances who have
themselves emigrated, tor his information,
or in the hands of interested emigration
agents, who would, many of them, not
scraple to send out families in shiploads for
the sake of their own commission on the
fares, long after the' colony to which the
vessel was chartered was over-peopled. Just
lately some benevolent-minded people have
sought to supply the want in a measure, and
in London partieularly there is a recently-
formed Emigration Committee, which seeks
to spread light and publish broadcast the
truth concerning the question. 'With this
association tne Bishop of Bedford has, we
believe, official connection. At any rate, he
presided at a Conference held in connection
therewith awhile ago at King's College,
when a resolution was unanimously adopted
that a Government inquiry into the whole
system of emigration was necessary. Such
societies as this, with the best of intentions,
cannot stem the torrent of evil arising from
indiscriMinate, ignorant, or wrongly-directed
emigration. They may do, and doubtless
will do, something to lessen the evil; but it
will require all the resources of the Govern-
ment Colonial and Board of Trade depart-
ments to put the matter on a proper footing.
We have not lost sight of the work of the
Christian Knowledge Society, which has for
a long period, by indirect methods, done its
best to supply statistics of colonial needs to
those most concerned in the subject ; but all
this disinterested philanthropic effort falls
far short of being at all adequate. Indeed,
the latter very useful society has now found
itself powerless to cope with the ever-in-
creasing extent and amount of information
asked for by its workers; and has ap-
proached the Colonial Office with a view to
urging Government action. The Society
was successful in obtaining an encouraging
repl y from the Under-Secretary for the
Colonies. The Christian Knowledge Society
tergely rely upvu siszssas agency in diffusing
information, which they wish colonial officials
to collect and supply. Doubtless the clergy.
man would make a most satisfactory medium
in the matter, but it would be unfair to tax
his time to the necessary extent, and we
would suggest that the requisite information
should be supplied at district offices in
several central and convenient provincial
places. The Government emigration agent
might be equipped with powers not only to
advise and inform intending emigrants, but
also to arrange direct for their passage out
and reception and settlement in the new
country on the best terms which the means
or assistance of the enaigsant party could
command.. For this purpose the Board of
Trade could combine with advantage with
the Colonial Department, which has splendid
machinery for obtaining information in its
Agents General connection Mr. Mandolin
has always been interested in emigration,
and knows much of the subject, and he
should therefore be able to push .on the
matter to a practical conclusion. The
Labour Statistics Department, suggasted by
Mr. Bradlaugh recently, and approved by
the House of Commons. could easily be
worked in connection with the Board of
Trade end of such a scheme, and the result
should be most satisfactory. There is, very
rightly, a want of public confidence in the
information supplied by advertising emigra-
tion offices, and even sometimes in particu-
lars furnished to private applicants by some
of the Colonial Agents-General. But these
official interveners between the mother.
country and the various Colonies would
hardly return to the Board of Trade other
than accurate and up-to-date information,
and in the absence of all interested motive
a Government Emigration Office would be
able to retail the requisite detail initsinteg-
ray to the lieges of her Majesty. An Emi-
gration Department of the
.description here
shadowed could well have entrusted to it,
in addition to thefunctionsofaninformation
bur. au, such matters as the inspection of
eloigrant accommodation at halting places
in Britain ea rvute to the ports of embarka-
tion, of the accommodation on shipboard for
the voyage (which sadly needs official over-
sight), and also the care of the emigrants by
its agents in the receiving Colonies until they
obtained a settlement. Indeed it would be
easy to facilitate a settlement in every case
by only taking the supply where the demand I
had been officially ascertained to exist. The
curse of the colonies has been the arrival of
wholly unsuitable emigrants in shoals. A
Government office could obviate this wi h
e , With the possible machinery in •
tk„,wots t.)1\1:..r suo /eta oi btki euotrat fts.

runt of the emigration of poling persons for
improper purposes would be largely gone;
for the suggeited department could set in
direct concert with the Colonial Police. A
State-Emigration Office would bit au lux.
doubted boon.