The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-09-05 00:00:00

EMIGRATION OF AGRICULTURAL
LABOURERS.

The Liverpool Albion thus describes the embarkation at
Liverpool of the emigrants who went out in the Ontario last
week:—
The tide of emigration from the agricultural districts
of England still continues to flow, and is evidently
growing in volume. On Wednesday more than rioo
men, women, and children, drawn from twenty-one
counties, but chiefly from Cambridgeshire and
Oxfordshire, Bailed from the Mersey for Canada, in
the steamship Ontario, of the Dominion Line, and
on Thursday another large contingent left these
shores on board the Perurian, of the Allan Line.
The greater portion of the Ontario's contingent
reached Liverpool, by various lines of railway, on
Tuesday evening, and were at once taken on board the
vessel, thus being saved not merely the risk of imposi-
tion but expense. They consisted of 225 adults, 195
children, and 38 infants, or a total of 456 souls. The
other portion arris ed on Wednesday morning, and
likewise were at once taken on board the vessel, where
they met with the kindest treatment on the part of the
owners and friends of the emigration movement.
Among the latter were Mr. Henry Taylor, general
secretary of the National Agricultural Labourers'
Union, who is accompanying the party to Canada ;
Mr. Alfred Arnold, of Birmingham, a member of the
Consultative Committee; Mr. J. C. Cox, of Belper ;
the Rev. S. H. Attenbury, of Leamington ; Mr.
Edmund Jones, chairman of the Liverpool Relief
Committee ; Mr. W. Simpson, Mr. Cropper, and Mr.
IL Hubback, members of the Local Committee; and
Mr. Main and Mr. Montgomery, directors of the
Dominion Line. At one o'clock a tender left the stage
for the Oolaria, taking a number of gentlemen on
board, and soon afterwards the process known as
clearing the ship took place. This, as all Liver-
pool people know, means "passing the doctor," and
producing to the ship's officials all necessary docu-
ments. As the emigrants passed one after another
under the very cursory, but doubtless sufficient, in-
spection of the medical man, their appearance and
demeanour were observed with much interest by the
visitors. The statistics given are sufficient indication
that the party were largely composed of families—chil-
dren and infants exceeding in number by ten the
adults, so far as the arrivals on Tuesday were con-
cerned. What probably struck onlookers first in rela-
tion to the whole party was the absence in the looks
of nearly all of any evidences of protracted hardship
undergone, and possibly some few envied these for-
lorn ones their healthy and vigorous appearance.
Only in one case had the medical officer to stop a
family from passing, and that was owing to a little
one suffering from measles. But while hale and
healthy, there was a subdued expression about
all, and an absence of joyousness, which spoke
eloquently not merely of regret at leaving the land of
their birth, but of long submission to an almost hope-
less condition of existence. It was a sad sight to see.
The 500 were just the sort of people who ought not to
leave a land where the conditions of life are as they
ought to be, and the fact of their departure is pregnant
with matter for most serious consideration. We are
all familiar with the poet's view of the land in which
wealth is found to accumulate, but in which men
decay. Can it be said to be well for a land when
the bone and sinew of its population are obliged,
for the sake of the mere means of existence, and
not in the pursuit of the luxuries of life, to seek
distant homes? Surely not, and therefore let us
see to it. But what is our loss is likely to be
Canada's gain. Family after family of these people
passed along the deck, just the material for peopling
a colony. Some families numbered as many as nine
or ten members, and there were about ten, consisting
of father and mother and half-a-dozen children. It
was impossible not to breathe a heartfelt aspiration that
the hopes these people had formed of a future contrast-
ing brightly with the dull past would not fail to be
realised as each sturdy man with his patient help-
mate passed, the woman carrying the baby and the
father the youngest but one, while at their feet, won-
dering at the strange surroundings, walked the elder
olive branches of the flock. After the inspection the
emigrants were marched aft to listen to addresses
from various friends, and as dinner was waiting
for them these addresses ought certainly to have
been more brief than they were. Public speakers
are not, however, always judicious in this respect, but
except on board ship it is usually easy to get away
from over.talkativeness. But on board ship in the
middle of the river they have people pretty much at
their mercy, and on Wednesday they were merciless.
Before the speech-making commenced, Mr. Taylor gave
out a song to be sung from acollection entitled "Songs
of the labourers of the National Agricultural Labourers'
Union." As a sample of the literature of the lock-out
we quote the first stanza of the song :
"0, Workmen, awake for the strife is at hand ;
With right on your side, then with hope firmly stand—
To meet your oppressors, go, fearlessly go,
And stand like the brave—with your face to the foe.
Stand like the brave, stand like the brave,
Stand like the brave—with your face to the foe."
Certainly not a very appropriate song to be sung by
people about to weigh anchor for a land in which they
hope not to meet oppressors but benefactors. There
was nothing pathetic, but rather the contrary, in the
tone and sentiment of the song, but there was a sin-
gular pathos in the voices of the singers, and it was
impossible not to feel regret that these poor people—
thereon the broad Mersey, leaving the land of their
birth and with an uncertain future before them—had
not been asked to attune their voices to some melody
less calculated to perpetuate bitterness of feeling.
After the song Mr. Montgomery, who was the un-
seated chairman of the impromptu meeting, in the
name of the owners of the Ontario, expressed their
desire to make the voyage as comfortable as
possible. Mr. Taylor, who was received with
cheers which denoted his popularity, said that
the wages of agricultural labourers in this country had
never been regulated by the principles of political
economy, nor by any law except the will of the farmers,
met in the parish vestry or upon market day. As a
remedy for this he had faith in emigration, and he was
goinos to Canada to nee whether the conditions of life
for the masses there were such as would warrant them
in urging the friends they were leaving behind to
follow them. The Rev.S. IL Attenbury, uf Leaming-
ton, said that they were often taunted with the reruark
that they urged poor people to leave the country,
who Poo noon as they were on board ship regretted
the course they had been induced to take. He
had, however, spoken to every family on board
the Ontario, and found only one expression, and
that was perfect content and thankfulness. After
remarking that he did not believe that there was
any surplus labour in the country, the reverend gentle-
man said he was not sorry for those who were going
but for those who were left behind. He was of opinion
that the country could better afford to lose a hundred
parsons than a hundred agricultural labourers. This
expression of opinion evoked hearty msent, and one
sturdy fellow made known his estimate of the value of
parsons by the remark, "Oh, we could spare all of
them." Mr. Cox addressed some encouraging remarks
to the emigrants, and took occasion to express regret
at "the attempt which bad been made to defame
the character of that most upright man, Mr. Arch."
Mr. Arnold, of Birmingham; the Rev. T. B. Stephen-
son, of London; Mr. Clark, and Mr. Edmund Jones,
also spoke. The latter gentleman was prepared to go
on for an hour, but the meeting had lasted so long
when his turn came that he was limited to five
minutes. He stated that close upon a thousand
pounds had been raised in Liverpool for the relief 14
U,,' locked ~it agricultural labourers, and had been
handed IFN er front time to time to the es., title, com-
mittees of the unions. When Mr. .I ones had tinished
the people made oft to their quarters between decks,
where, with well sharpened appetites, they partook of
a dinner such as they have enjoyed hut rarely in their
lives. The accommodation provided for them on
board the Ontario is excellent, the space 'tween decks
in this fine vessel being more than usually lofty, 1111
that s eidnation, otherwise aided, is good. The sleep-
ing compartments are also more than usually spacious,
so that the emigrants may hope to reach the Dominion
with as little hardship a. possible. There, under the
best possible circumstances, hard toil awaits them, but
they have a hope in the future which was denied them
in their own land.
In addition to the agricultural labourers and their
families, the Ontario took out another interesting con-
tingent of emigrants to Canada. These consisted of
forty-eight boys from the Children's Home, London,
an institution in connecti in with which there is a farm
at Edgeworth, near Belton, and a reception home at
Hamilton, Ontario. These children go out in charge
of My. Coward W. Thies. Nearly one hundred cnil-
dren have previously been vent out from the Home to
Canada, and in September a party of girls is to be
:font out, under the charge of the Rev. Mr. Stephenson.

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Li 13ro.,k1yu Cae autlyeities " t,izeihe urive
The pc.htemen eat lt and the chtldren are las ed.