The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-06-28 00:00:00

EMIGRATION TO AUSTRALIA.

The following letter Is from the New South Wales Corre-
spondent of The tinvr, dated Sydney, April 19 :

The Parliament has been induced to vote £50,000 for
emigrants. At the present fares this will not bring
out a great many, but it is a beginning, and provided
the Agent-General finds himselt able to ship men and
women of the right stamp, it may be regarded as the
first instalment only. We are glad to observe • change
in the tone of the English journals respecting emigra-
tion. It was not long since considered to be an
injury to the Mother Country that her sons should
leave her, but the fact is that nothing is more to
her advantage than that they should leave her for
her own colonies. A plethora of people is removed
from one place where they are a source of danger
and burden to another where they are a source of
profit. Every man, woman, and child brought out
here consumes, it is calculated, three times as mueli
ttf manufactured goods as he would do at home. And
this estimate is quite within the mark. Roughly
stated, the policy of encouraging a large measure of
emigration is this—you send forth • pauper and trans-
form him into • consumer. You wouid meet wiih
as much objection on the part of those who remain
to pay for those who leave, doubtless as we do
here from those already landed, whether gratui-
tously or not, to pay for the transport of competi-
tors. Nevertheless reason prevails. Labour of all
sorts is much needed here. Female servants
are earning great wages good cooks, 20s. and
255. a week; housemaids, 12s. to 15s. Of the
800 women brought out to the colony lately by
Government assistance all obtained engagements
in respectable families immediately they landed, the
rates of wages being from £2O to £22 per annum. The
wages in the iron trades vary from 6s. to 14s. a day,
engine-drivers being at the top of the scale and simple
labourers at the bottom. Carpenters make from Be. to
100. a day; painters, 9a. ; masons, be; bricklayers, Os.
'to 100. • carriage makers, wheelwrights and smiths,
7s. 64. to 10'.; painters, Bs. 44. to 10e. 10d. ; ship-
wrights, 12e. ; railway carriage workmen, from Bs. to
13s. a day; farm labourers, £3O to £35, hut-room and
rations included ; ploughmen, stockmen, and shepherds,
£35 to £4O a year; general house servants, 10e. to 12s.
a week; grooms and gardeners, from £4O to £5O a
year; governesses, from £26 to £lOO per annum, and
BO on. _ _

The selection of emigrants is intrusted to Sir Charles
Cowper. It will be limited to such persons as can pay
one third of the coat of the passage to the colony (in
the case of families, both for adults and children), and
is to be made from the population of England, Scot-
land, and Ireland in such manner as shall prevent
undue preponderance of any one, Emigrants must be
of sound health and good char wter, and are to consist
either of married couples not exceeding 35 years
of age (with or without chi dren), or of unmarried
women not exceed ng 30 years of age. It is
&idled that they sh iul I be from the classes of
mechanics, farmers, miners, vinedressers, labourers,
and dome-tic servants. All di points on money on
account of the passages will be received by the Agent-
General. Additional directions Call be obtained from
the Agent-General. LA me inform your readers that
those who desire to possess themselves of a good map
or a few ready facts concerning the colony ass place for
emigrants will find something to suit them in the New
South Wales Court of the London Exhibition. What
the Agricultural Society has prepared the Internationa
Commissioners have adopted, and very good it is,
and, moreover, quite reliable.
Before quiting this subject let me say to young far-
mers who may read this letter, Why do you not come
out here and cultivate sugar? Here is splendid land
and a fine market; all that is wanting is the capital
and the brains. Farmers can be put in the way of
making from 20 to 30 per cent, of their money.