The Express.
London, England, 1848-08-11 00:00:00

IMPE It lAL PARLIAMEIN T•

HOUSE OF LOROo.—TIII3ItBDAT, Auo. 10.
The Loan CniasaiLLon tank his seat st 5 o'eleck.
PRIVATE BUSINESS.
SECOND READlNGe.—Walsall Improvement (No. 2); Ediebuelh,
and Olsownw and Edinburgh and liatbrate Railway Caimans
Amendment; Bills.
WIRD READlNCh—rabaey, }Unbend. and Millet Itaiiway Bill.
PUBLIC BUSINESS.
!SECOND READINGS.—Pert amentare Electors Ercha".}kal
aurwaktion . goeielies; Highway Rates, Unlawful Oaths Acts
(Ireland) (Onttlatianee sod Amendment=
Row;
sm..
COSlMlTTEEe.—Caledoetan Canal;
THIRD RE totNOi.—limn Duties; Naval Medical r•onpleretral
Fund society ; Juvenile Offenders (Ireland); Land Tax Corn
katers' Names; Wtn,lree Castle and Town Atnrosehma Improvement,
?amour: Officer. t'oneeidation; Charity Trust Regulation; Ifilla
PAISLEY, BARR D, HEA AND HURLET RAILWAY
BILL.
Oa the motion that this bill he read a third time,
Lord BEAUMONT called the attention of the house slava,
petitioa of the Glasgow, Paisley,
Railway Company. which he had presented against the hill ,
and moved that it he read a third time that day six months.
The Earl of DEVON supported the bill.
After et few wor 'a from I.e.rd REDEBOALE,
The amendment was withdrawn, and the bill read a third
line and passed.
PUBLE: HEALTH BILL.
Messengers from the House of Commons appeared at the
bar, and requested a conference with their lordships on the
subject of the amendment.; made by their lordships in this
bill.
On the motion of the Earl of StiAresentoor, the fol-
lowing noble lords were appointed managers on the part of
their lordships :—The Earl of Devon, the Earl of Warwick,
Earl Granville, the Reel of Strafford, Viscount Canning,
Lord Redemlale, and Lord Campbell.
On the return rat the messengers on the part of their lord-
ship., the Earl of Deyoer stated that the managers, en the
pert of the Commons, hal delivered their reasons for dis-
senting from their lordships' amendments.
THE AI:MALIAN COLONIES.
Earl GREY rose to lay on the table certain papers in con-
nexion with Australia, and. in doing so, he trusted that the
great interest which had been felt on the subject would be a
sufficient apology for the few remarks which he was about to
make. When the rest of emigration to Australia woo com-
pared with the number of persons who now go annually from
our shores to that colony, it was surprising to find that so
grist a number of persons leR this country for that distant
part of the world, but it could not be expettid that emigra-
tion to that qearter could bo carried to such
an extent as to produce any very perceptible
effect on the population at home. The cost of
conveying an emigrant to Australia might be taken in round
numbers to he somewhere about 20!. 'Coking the average of
the lest seven years. the annual number of emigrants to
Australia had been 122 000 persons; hut in the last year it
had increased t 3 258,000, the cost of 'his additional number
being ab nit 2,500.0001. Emigration to that colony was of
the greatest importance to the empire, affording as it did a
wide field for the enterprise of many ardent spirits which
they could not find at home, and creating a thriving ;immu-
nity, with whom a e might carry on a large and lucrative
trade; our Australian trade being, in fact, one of the most
important which we possessed. When it was remembered
that the labourers we sent out there were engaged in pre-
paring one of the raw materials employed in the manufac-
tures of this country—that by their comumption
of tea and linger they created an additional trade
between this country and China—that they contri-
buted largely to additional occupation at home—and
also that they of orded employment to our ships—it must he
admitted that it was important to promote emigration to
Australis to the greatest possible extent. (Hear, hear.)
And this object was one which, during the last 20 years,
had not been n. elected by previous administrations. He
wished to call the attention ol their lordshinsto a comparison
of the state of the Australian colonies in 1828 and at the
present moment, and their lordships would be, he thought,
surprised to tee what had been accomplished within the lane
20 years by the energy and acivity of the settlers. In 1828
the only colonies whrch we occupied in that quarter of the
globewere New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, the
extent of settlement in each being small, and the whole
population of both not exceeding 53,000, of whom 23,000
were convicts in a state of servitude, and a large
number of the remainder had originally proceeded
there as convicts. Now, New South Wale', including
Port Phillip, extended about 1,000 miles by 300 broad, part
of which wax certainly occupied as pasturaee only, hut still it
was advent...germ-1y employetl—the whole area of the colony
being three and a half times larger than Great Britain, and
the coast line extending 1,500 miles. Besides this, we occu-
pied Southern and Western Australia and the valuable island
of New Zealand; and the whole British population in the
different Austrolten colonies now amounted to about 300,000.
In twenty yearn, therefore, that population hail increased
about flee or six-told ; but their wealth had increased still
mere rapidly, and that could be best judg,l of by the exports
from the colonies. In 1828 the whole exports were 181,0001,;
in 184.5—the last yew up to which the returns bad been
made—the exports had risen to 2,189,0001 ' being twelve-told
in ',event', n yeers. (Hear, hear.) In 13.30, when be first
knew anything officially of these colonies, there was
no provision for the emigration of the labouring
classes; but at the close of that year Lora Ripen,
established a system of the tale of land fur the purpose of
applying the revenue realised thereby to carrying out this
class of emigrants. A COMBO, ion was also appointed on the
subject, con r which the Duke of Richmond prodded, and
thee succeeded in inducing shipowners to furnish pongee at
a cheaper rate to the labouring class. The funds were, how.
ever, low, and although the operations were at first on a
small scale, the- gradually became greater, and the result
was that, in 1837, the extent of emigration had 10 greatly in
creased that a separate commit-ion was appointed for the
management of hat branch of public =sinew, which woo,
in fact, the origin o. the Land and Emigration Commies oa.
In the following ten s ear, the population was nearly double d.
The South Australian Commission sent out 10,000 persons;
the New Zealand Compel y, 7,000; and altogether there
went our in the ten years 100,000 emigrants, 80,000
of whom wire provided with passages out of the
sale of lands in the colenics. (Hear, hear.) He
would now for a m ,went turn to individual results. Port
Phillip might be said to be the creation of the lag ten years.
In 1836 there were only a sew scattered inhabitams there,
estimated at between two and three hundred; but io March,
1840, at the time of the last census, the population bad in-
creased to 32,800, including the town of Melbourne; and
the imports were then 205,0001 and the woes 314,000/ ,
making a revenue of 158,0001 , in a colony which only ten or
eleven years before had been occupied by only two or three
hundred peep 4. In South Australia the results had been
Itia.OSt equally remarkable, He should say that the new
and rising community 4,f Port Philip had been established
without one shilling of expense to this country. Although
South Ass Tali& had had difficulties to contend with, yet for
some years past she had =urged from them. In short from
the time when that colony was taken out of th, hands of the
commissioners originally appointed, and the management as-
sumed by the government—Rom that time South Australis
had continuo d steadily to advance, and now possessed a
large surplus revenue and a large fund applicable tothe con-
veyance of emigrant.. And it could nut be said that this
was owing to the street mineral wealth of the colony, be-
cause her difficulties were at their le ight in 18-10, and in
1843 they had been entirely overcome; and the colony was
in a state of advancing prosperity before the mines had been
opened to say exte.A. (Hear, hear.) It was also a mis-
take to suppose that these colonies had been formed merely
by the emigration of 1 tlesurers ; BO car from that being the
case, the population also consisted of officers of the army
and navy • gentlemen who had taken degrees at our univer-
sities and other persons of station and intelligence; in
short, he helieved South Australia and New South Wales
would be fours; to contain a large proportion of persons of
superior education and intelligence. (Hear, hear.) It was
curious and important, from the evidence of Mr. Edwards, to
mark the comparison between the Australian colonies and
our .11 American colonies, now the United Stater.
of America. The p•pulation of Sydney in 1836 was
19,000; and in 1816, 38,000. Let their lordships compare
this with the old American colonies; the population of lios.
toe, 17 years sifter it wa+ founded. in 1790, was only 18.000,
and the population of what was now the great city of New
York, in 1773, immediately before the breaking out of the
war of independence was only 21,800. Hayloft then been
founded for a much longer period than Sydney had been at
the present time, it contained a population of 17,000 lees than
Sydney now did. la 1790 the population of Philadelphia
was only 28,000. But what would be found to he still more
remarkable was a comparison of wealth and the advantage
to the mother country of the Australian colonies over the
American. The population of the American colonies in
1772 was 2,300,000: the population of the Australian colo-
nies in 1845 was 283,000. Now the imports of all descrip-
tions into the American colonies in 1773 were about one mil-
lion sterling, whilst the imports into the Australian colonies
in 184.5 had been 2,1)70,000). Theesporteof the old American
colonies in 1773 were something short of 2,0130,000/., whilst
the exports of the At•stralian colonies in 1845 had been
2,18.1,0001. (Hear, hear.) The value per head of exports
and imports in both cases would show the result more
strikingly. The imports in the old American colonies were
Bs. 9d. per head of the population whilst the imports in the
Austranan colonies were 71. ss. 10d. per head. The exports
in the American colonies were 16'. Bd. per head, and in the
Australian colonies, 71. 14s. 3d. per head. (Hear, hear.) It
could not be said. therefore, that the population of our colo-
nies were less capable of carrying on their enterprise new
than they had been in former days; and when the difficulty
of a voyage to Australia, as compared with America, was
considered, the result was still more remarkable. But great
as this progrees had been, he was far from saying that it was
not the duty of parliament and the government to give on
zymase(' Impetus to emigration. (Hear, hear.) In
1815 the emigration to Australia was nearly sus-
pended; but it was resumed again in 1846, and
about 2,000 persons were sent out in that year. Since
that period emigration to Australia had steadily progressed.
Last year the governor of New South Wales reported that
the debt which previous emigration hid causc d to accumu-
late was nearly paid off, and emigration might be safely re-
sumed in that quarter. Feeling confidence in the reasons
assigned by Sir Charles Fitzroy, he at once directed the emi-
gration commissioners to nsume the emigration there, and
the first ship sailed in October, and since then the funds had
kept pace with the increased emigration. In the present
par there had been et of to New South Wales 23 ships carry-
tog 7.2(3 and to South Australia 11 ships carrying
2,110; and ships being now despatched at the rate of six in
every month, it was calculated that before the close of the
year there would be sent 40 additional ships carrying 10,000
emigrants, to that in the course of this year there would be
added no less thou 18,059 persons to the population of those co-
lonies. At the conementrimnt of 1846 the population of
South Australia was 22,390, since which there had been de-
spatched nearly 8,000 emigrants by the emigration commis-
sioners, or nearly one-third of the existing population. It
appeared by a report of the Legislative Assembly of New
South Wiles in 1847 that the whole umber of hired sir.

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