The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-04-18 00:00:00

THE LABOURERS' EXODUS.
(From Wednebday's Daily Sews.)

The farmers in the eastern counties who are trying
to stamp out trades unionism might have been able to
estimate at its true value one of the great forces
working against them, had they paid a visit to the
East India Docks yesterday afternoon. In a corner
near the entrance lay the "line clipper ship St.
James's, 2000, tons," chartered by the Queensland
Government, and bound for Maryborough and Bris-
bane, taking on board her cargo of agricultural la-
boureni and their families, coming in great part from
Suffolk and Essex, and numbering in till some 310 per-
sons. Of course there was the confusion usual on these
occasions. Forward, the single young men were
hard at work fixing the mattresses, just drawn from
the stores, into their berths ; while aft the girls were
similarly employed, giggling much as they regarded
the narrow coffin-like compartments in which they
will have to sleep for the next three months. Down
the main hatch the luggage was being stowed, and the
last lot of provisions got on board ; and everywhere,
on gangways and twitches, in passages and berths, chil-
dren of all ages and sizes swarmed—ruddy, chubby
youngsters, whose fat cheeks were a treat to look at,
and could hardly be matched in a day's walk through
London. But the little folks were not the only well-
favoured ones among the passengers. The men were
broad-shouldered, bright-eyed fellows, in the prime
of life, evidently enjoying fine health, and their wives
and families were like them. A question or two soon
explains that these emigrants are the very pick of the
districts from which they come, One man, besides
being is good gardener, has a turn for rough car-
pentering; another, while understanding stock and
farming generally. can shoe a horse, and knows some-
thing of blacksmith's work ; all apparently can turn
their hands to something else besides their own trade.
This is the class of men whom the agents are constantly
endeavouring to induce to emigrate—the very men, be-
ore all, whom the farmers want, and are anxious to
keep, at home. The woman apparently heartily favour
the move, and in many cases seem to have been the
first to suggest and to urge it. But the step has evi-
dently not been hastily taken. All are well up in the
details of the province to which they are going, and
the children even have caught the contagion : one
little girl, scarcely able to walk, and struggling
manfully along the deck with a ship-biscuit
in one hand and an enormous unekinned potatoe
in the other, yet manages to lisp out, as she
momentarily ceases her labours at the edibles she car-
ries, that she is bound for "Eensland." In one case,
indeed, a strong-minded woman, after dragging her
reluctant husband with her to the docks, changed her
mind, and suddenly started home again, taking hum
with her. The masters generally have done their best
to discountenance the movement. "My master told
me," said one young fellow, "that I should get no
work and be worse off out there than I was at home. But
I says to him, says I, why are they sending us all the
way out there for nothing then? and that floored him
for a minute. He said at last that I had better go
and see, and I told him that was just what I meant
to do." Very few among the passengers are locked.
out men, but the ships sailing during the next
fortnight will carry more than MO men from Suffolk
and Essex, and two agents sent down specially for the
purpose are busy filling up further lists. It cannot be
wondered at that the men should eagerly accept the
liberal offers of the Queensland Government. The
passage is free, or nearly so, and the commissariat
arrangements sound very tempting. Meat every day,
with plenty ot other good food, is not the average fare
of a Suffolk labourer. This 'll do "was the sententious
comment of a Newmarket man, as a pannikin of beef
and potatoes was handed him for dinner and the
rough-and-ready style in which it was served
out was apparently only an additional recom-
mendation. Contrary to the usual order of thing,i,
everything seemed to meet with approval. The
narrow oblong compartments set apart for the
married people in the middle of the vessel were
as comfortable, and much more private, said one
woman, than the accommodation in many cottages she
had known. Scarcely a tear was to be seen ; every
one seemed to be joyously anticipating a happy set-
tlement in their new home, and one would scarcely
have thought it was a party of emigrants which
gathered as the day darkened in one of the sheds near
the vessel, and looked at a series of dissolving views
(painted from photographs taken in Queensland), and
carefully explained by one of the agents in charge.