The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-06 00:00:00

AUSTRALIAN EMIGRATION

AT a numerous and highly respectable
MEETING of rersons interested in the prosperity of
the GREAT COLONY of NEW SOUTH WALES, held
at the George and Vulture Tavern, in the City of London, on
Monday, the sth day of April, 1841, convened for the purpose
of considering the " CONDITIONS" recently promulgated
by the Colonial Land and Emigration Commissioners, touch-
ing the future conduct of Bounty Emigration, and to decide on
the measures necessary in order to obtain their annulment,
and thereby avert the alarming injury they are calculated to
produce as respects the future supply of labour to New South
Wales,
CHARLES BARRY BALDWIN, Esq., M.P., in the Chair,
It was moved by STUART DoistAtnsow, Esq., seconded by
CHARLES LEE, Esq., and

Resolved unanimously,
That the latest accounts from New South Wales represent
the demand for labour in that colony to be more pressing and
urgent than at any former period ; wages bad risen enormously,
and wore expected to be still higher; the dock owners were
unable to obtain shepherds at all approximating to the number
absolutely necessary for their proper care; great apprehen-
sions were entertained that much of the forthcoming harvest,
which promised to be very abundant, would perish in the fields
for want of a sufficient supply of labour to reap and store it ;
and all the great interests of the colony were very seriously
endangered from the alarming deficiency of labour. A Com-
mittee of the Legislative Council of which the Bishop of Austra-
lia was Chairman, in their Report to the Council in September
last, state, that "Every department of industry is cramped;
and no undertaking. public or private, can be prosecuted ex-
cept at an immerse expense, oaing to the exorbitant rate of
wage:, and the inconceivable difficulty in procuring workmen,
servants, or mechanics, upon any terms whatever; there is no
part of the colony in which it may not be truly said that there
is an actual dearth of hands to carry on the ordinary business.
In the instance of sheep farming, the distress arising from want
of shepherds is almost incredible. Thus a very fatal check is
put upon the advancing prosperity of the Colony."
It was moved by THOMAS ICELEY, Esq., of New South Wales,
seconded by ALEXANDER SMITH, Esq., of Liverpool, and
Resolved unanimously,
That in the opinion of this meeting it is in the highest de-
gree important that the supply of labour from these kingdoms
to New South Wales should be encouraged and promoted by all
practicable means, and that every possible facility and encourage-
ment, consistent with the existing law of the land, should be
afforded to all persons engaged in supplying it. In a Report
of the Committee of the Legislative Council of New South
Wales, they state "that to permit immigration to be suspended
or checked in its extent, would be to seal the death-warrant
of colonial prosperity, and to expose to certain ruin the nu-
merous flourishing and extending interests which have been
created in the Colony," land it may also be truly affirmed that any
check in the supply of labour to New South Wales is also cal-
culated, by reflection, to be highly injurious to the best inte-
rests of the Mother Country."
It was moved by EDWARD DIVETT, Esq.. M.P., seconded
by JOHN GILCHRIST, Esq., of Glasgow, and
Resolved unanimously,
That this Meeting consider§ the Bounty system of Emi-
gration, which was originated and established in the Colony,
by the Colonial authorities, under the administration of Sir
Richard Bourke, to have been a most valuable means of ob-
taining the necessary supply of Labour, and to have conferred
vast benefit on the Colony. It is estimated that upwards of
12,000 persons emigrated to New South Wales last year under
the operation of the Bounty system, and in the present year,
(1841) there is reason to believe that a vastly increased supply
will be furnished under this invaluable system, if left, as here-
tofore, to the energy of those engaged in sending it out,
unshackled by the imposition of unnecessary and obstructive
" conditions In their estimate of the great value of the
Bounty system, this Meeting has the entire concurrence of Sir
George Gipps, who, in a despatch to the Secretary of State
for the Colonies, presented to, and printed by order of Parlia-
ment, says " the Bounty system, however, has been found so
far superior to that of Government Emigration, both as
to the description of persons supplied by it, and the cost
of their passage,• that it appears to me very doubtful
whether any other should be persevered in ;" and in another
despatch the Governor, speaking of the Report which had then
recently been presented by the Committee on Emigration in
the Colony to the Legislative Council, thus expresses himself :
" I am in no way able to dispute the correctness of the con-
clusions of the Committee, in respect to the superiority of the
Bounty system over that which is carried on by the immediate
agency of Government. The Bounty system is found to be 4/.
per head, or about 21 per cent. cheaper than the Government
system, reckoning men, women, and children all alike, and
making no difference for the quality of the emigrants ; but if
this difference be taken into consideration, and especially the
smaller proportion of children introduced by the Bounty sys-
tem, the advantage of that system must be estimated consi-
derably higher, and I am inclined to think with the Ccmmit-
tee, that 200 Government emigrants cost as much as 3GO
Bounty ones of equal value to the Colony." This, it should be
distinctly borne in mind, is the voluntary testimony of the Go-
vernor of the Colony, in his official communications to the
Secretary of State. As respects that most important consi-
deration—the comparative state of health on board Govern-
.ment and Bounty ships conveying passengers to New South
Wales, it was stated in evidence before the Committee of the
Legislative Council at Sydney in 1839, that the relative loss of
life on the voyage was as hallows, viz.:--
Government Bounty
Ships. Ships.
Of the aggregate number on board lin 16 ... lin 34
Ditto of Adults ... lin 45 . lin 99
Ditto of Children
In the Report of the Committee of 1840, on Immigration,
presented to the Legislative Council, of which the Bishop of
Australia was ,he Chairman, the Committee state—" In pri-
vate ships,under the Bounty system, there were embarked 884
Adults, viz., 423 Males and 461 Females, and 170 Children—
eighty male and ninety female. The register of deaths among
them has not been preserved, as will be found stated in the
evidence. As, however, no ships of this class have been placed
in quarantine during the past season, it is reasonable to believe,
and it is, indeed, a matter of general notoriety, that the immi-
grants by Bounty ship-have arrived invariably in a state of good
health, and that the casualties at sea have been exceedingly
few."
It was moved by James JOHN Cusrsusxs, Esq., seconded by
NEIL CAMPBELL, .sq., and

Resolved unanimously,
That thus proved beyond all question, as the superiority of
the Bounty system has been, as a medium for supplying labour to
the Colony, it is a duty of the most urgent obligation on the
part of the Government of this country, to encourage and pro-
mote that system by affording every possible facility and free-
dom from all unnecessary interference with those engaged in
caming, it on, consi,tent with the provisions of the existing
law of the land, and the stringent regulations in force in
New South Wale,. as respects all persons introduced into the
Colony under the Bounty system.
It was moved by WILLIAM BROWN, Esq., seconded by
ROBERT BROOKS, Esq., and
_

Resolved unanimously,
That this Meeting has learnt with great alarm, that, acting
under the representations made to him by the Colonial Land
and Emigration Commissioners, the Secretary of State for the
Colonies has permitted them to interfere seriously, and most
injuriously, with those engaged in conducting Bounty emigra-
tion in virtue of authority from the Colonial Government, and
under strictly-defined conditions and regulations on the part of
that Government; that the Commissioners have actually
issued certain " conditions" of a most oppressive, and, as this
meeting entirely believes, wholly uncalled for nature; which
" conditions" are a direct infraction of the contracts entered
into by the Colonial Government with persons resident in the
Colony, the effect of which, if persevered in, will, this Meeting
has reason to believe, be the immedi4e and large diminution
of the supply of labour under the Bounty system, and its even-
tual and early abandonment by those engaged;in it..
Moved by JOlll4 LAMBERT, Esq., seconded by HENRY
FLOWER, Esq., and

Resolved unanimously,
That these consequences, so pregnant with cause for alarm,
and so greatly to be deprecated, will have a powerful tendency
to diminish, if not almost entirely to stop, the sale of land in
the Colony ; the source whence the means of furnishing the
requisite supply of labour is derived, iva•much as in the event
of the flock owners being compelled to diminish their flocks,
from the impossibility of obtaining sheph, ri!s and labourers,
they cannot require any increase of yas!ure, nor will fresh
capital be invested by others in the production of the grey
staple of the Colony: thus the:means of defraying the cost of
conveying out emigrants will be seriously endangered.
Moved by WILLIAM WALKER, Esq..., seconded by GEORGE