The Sun.
London, England, 1848-10-10 00:00:00

EMIGRATION AND THE RAIL-
WAY INTERESTS.
SWINDON.—On Wednesday last we witnessed -a new
and highly-important movement, JllustratiVe of the feel-
ing with which emigration to Australia is being viewed
by the higher order of the operative classes in this
country. The numerous artificers and labourers in the
employ of the Great Western Railway at Swindon, the
focus of the company's locomotive manufactory, as-
sembled in the hall of the Mechanics' Institute at that
station, to receive a deputation from the Colonisation
Society, who had been specially invited to expound the
principles of the association, in order that those to
whom they should appear to be applicable might avail
themselves of the information and assistance so afforded
to proceed to Australia. The primary cause of this
solicitation on the part of the workmen was the
fact that a large number of them are under notice,
which expires on Saturday next, to quit the services
of the company, owing to a cessation of operations,
on branches and subsidiary lines leased to, or that
were once intended to be made by, the Great Western.
The determination of the company to curtail all
practicable outlay from those sources having ren-
dered inevitable the dismissal of many hands, those
so removed naturally felt anxious to ascertain if the
Australian colonies furnished a likely field for ser-
vices for which an adequate demand no longer existed
at home, and those retained were hardly less anxi-
ous to learn the probabilities of benefieting their
present condition, and leaving a competence to the it
children, in the same direction. The directors, aide& in
the gratification of this laudable desire most cordially,
following the example of the Brighton and South-
Western, in placing every facility and accommodation
at the disposal of the deputation. The gentlemen from
the Colonisation Society who volunteered to impart
the requisite knowledge, were Mark Boyd, Esquire,
C. D. Logan, Esquire, and A. 11. Forrester, Esquire,
whose reception throughout the evening was of the
most gratifying character possible. The hall, which
is capable of containing a very large auditory,
was crowded to excess, numbers being unable to
obtain standing room; for not only were there the great
majority of the resident operatives of the works, but
there were many from other parts of the line and the
neighbourhood, several females also being present, to
whom the intelligence as to the destitution of Australia
in domestic servants appeared to be fraught with the
greatest interest. The band of the Mechanics' Institu-
tion were in attendance, and both before and after the
chief business of the evening performed a variety of
recent compositions in a manner that would do credit to
veteran professors, much less to self-taught amateurs of
very brief experience.
Mr. Archibald Sturrock, the intelligent manager of
the vast and varied works at Swindon, was voted by ac-
clamation to the chair, and on taking it introduced the
deputation in some pithy and pregnant remarks as to
the importance of the object in hand, and the character,
high standing, and qualifications of Mr. Mark Boyd and
his colleagues in the task of enlightening the public by
means of trustworthy and indisputable data, most of it
drawn from actual personal experience of the colony,
and all of it derived direct from the best possible sources
at head-quarters, both here and in the Auatralias.
Mr. M. Boyd said the labour that devolved upon him
was rendered exceedingly trivial from the circumstance
of his being associated with a gentleman of the great co-
lonial experience,general information, and large capacity,
of Mr. Logan. He (Nlr. Boyd) considered it particularly
fortunate, both for the mother country,-and our fruitful
possessions at the antipodes, that Mr. Logan should be
in England at a moment like the present. when our
whole population seemed to be thoroughly awaking to a
sense of the absorbing importance of turning to a prue
dent and obvious, but hitherto comparatively neglected
account, the advantages, the colonial empire of Great
Britain had placed at the disposal of its people in con-
nection with emigration—the only means of establishing
an equipoise between redundant labour and limited de-
mand tor it, on the one hand, and limitless demand and
an inadequate supply on the other. Mr, Logan came to
this country the bearer of the confidence and tho wishes
of the principal inhabitants of New South Wales to
the home Government, and certainly it was only due to
the Colonial office to say that he had met with a degree
of attention in all respects worthy of his mission. Earl
Grey, and all the subordinate functionaries of that de-
partment, including especially her Majesty's Commis-
sioners of Emigration, had availed themselves zealously
and continuously of the information which his
local knowledge enabled him to supply, and
which his discernment prompted him to impart
in the most judieiciuS and useful manner possible.
Not only had the Government officials recognised him
as a suitable exponent of colonial requirements in
respect to labour, but many of the leading magistrates
of the metropolis, and of England at large, had
put themselves in direct and unintermitting com-
munication with him since his arrival here a
few months ago, in reference to a question of
scarcely inferior social interest to emigration itself—
namely, penal or criminal discipline, to which sub-
' jest ho had devoted the most minute attention.
Now, the Colonisation Society accounted themselves
especially fortunate in having secured his co-operation
during his sojourn in England, before he returned to the
country of his adoption, whose welfare he was so well
calculated to promote. Xi:. Boyd then proceeded to detail
what the Colonisation Society had recently been doing
at Brighton, Southampton, and in London, and what
they proposed doing elsewhere. They had had numer-
ous invitations from the north, particularly from York-
shire, in which great county a most active, philanthropic,
and highly informed magistrate, parnard Hague, Esq.,
..sorting himself in a manner that would be produc-
tive of the greatest benefit to all who came within the
sphere of his benevolent and meritorious influences in
connexion with this subject. Ho was au invaluable pio-
neer to the society, who hoped to be busy in the manu-
facturing towns in that direction in the course of the
present month; and through the assistance of such friends
as Mr. Hague, of whom he was happy to say they had
many, he had no doubt they would be quite as success-
ful as they had been in the south. Circumstances, how-
ever, induced them to give attention at the earliest possi-
ble moment to the requisition from Swindon, the .earn-
estness of whose artisans in seeking for information
respecting Australia was sufficiently proved by a meeting
like the one then assembled. This movement was
worthy of their intelligence, worthy of the intelligence
of men through whose instrumentality the deputation
were enabled to perform what would have been deemed
a miracle even half a dozen short years ago—accom-
plishing the distance from London to that hall—about
77 miles, in one hour and a half, and in a mode so easy,
so little fatiguing, that the traveller was hardly con-
scious of the motion. The society did not propose to
advise or dictate to any one. They merely wished to
tell what they knew, what was notorious in the colony
as to the want of labour, and what that labour would
produce to the possessor of it; and to let those receiving
such tidings draw their own inferences. The colony was
doing all in its power, making every sacrifice to get la-
bour from England, where it was every day becoming of
less-ant less value. Up to .October last 170,000 t had
been received here to dispatch hands, for want of which
an incalculable amount of the finest .food and most valu-
able produce was perishing. Since then, from 50,0001.
to 60,0001. more had been received, and more still was on
its way hither for the same purpose. This money was
not Government grants wrung from obnoxious taxes. It
accrued from the natural wealth of the colony—the sale
of lands and the voluntary offerings of the colonists, and
all was devoted to Obfain that of which Australia could
not have too much, nbr could we part with too much,
vic,—labour, of which every species and description that
was accompanied with health and good behaviour pro-
cured the owner a competence to begin with, and an
ultimate independence to all of moderate age, and of
provident and self-controlling habits. Mr. Boyd then
proceeded to point out in what way the Colonisation So-
ciety assisted, by part payment of the passage money,
in
obtaining the sanction of the Emigration Commissioners
for a class of emigrants other than agricultural, such, for
instance, as the majority of those he was then address-
ing. He regretted that on this point the meeting had
not the opportunity of hearing the chairman of the so-
ciety, the Hon. F. Scott, the Member for Roxburghshire,
the utility of whose labours in the cause of emigration it
would be quite imposable to eulogise sufficiently. He
was then in Scotland devoting his great talents and in-
defatigable industry to the same end, instead of seeking
the relaxation he so much needed after the fatigues of
the past session, but of the nature of which those who
merely judged by the newspapers could form no idea
whatever. Mr. Boyd concluded an animated speech,
which was loudly applauded, by calling upon
Mr. LoGAN, who, in a most interesting address of
nearly an hour's duration, and which fully justified the
eulogiums pronounced upon him by the preceding
speaker, detailed the result of upwards of a dozen years'
observation of the labour market in New South Wales,
its supply and demand, and the consequences of a scar-
city of hands in the colony generally, and some of sud-
den gluts in particular spots on certain occasions. He
went most fully and comprehensively into the question
in all its essential bearings—national, imperial, social,
and economic—cleverly shaping his remarks to the par-
ticular pursuits of his audience, and showing that though
certain handicrafts in iron and metals might not obtain
animmediate market, yet a readiness to turn one's hand
to anything, together with the intelligence characteristic
of a good English mechanic, would always, at the very
outset, procure in the colony an equivalent to his full
ordinary earnings at home, and that his skilled labour
would be of course proportionably recompensed when
legitimately rendered available, the prospect of its so
being increasing every successive day. After a vivid
sketch of the position of the colony, illustrated
by many remarkable instances of the ruinous
effects of the lack of labour—pastoral, mechanical, and
domestic, male and female—Mr. Logan invited his
hearers to put questions that should elicit the precise
sort of information applicable to the individual case of
each interrogator. This led to a singular and highly
instructive scene. Many of the operatives proceeded to
catechise the Learned Gentlemen, and in so doing exhi-
bited not only the greatest natural shrewdness, but an
amount of acquired knowledge of the Australian cob,
nies that should be witnessed before it could be fully
credited. Mr. Logan replied with great good humour,
succinctly to the point, and, without a single exception,
to the satisfaction of every inquisitor. Passing from the
rates of wages, &e., he was examined as to the sanitary
and physical peCulittritirs of the colony, thc, mode of ob-
taining land In 'small quantities, price.; of wearing ap-
parel, and many other matters, in which his extensive
household experience, as one who had reared a large
family in the colony, stood him in excellent stead, and
were regarded as most conclusive by those who spoke in
behalf of their better halves as well as of themselves. In
all points involving mutters pertaining 'to shipping he
was ably assisted by Mr. Boyd, that gentleman on one
occasion giving a striking instance of the stringency with
which the Emigration Commissioners enforce their rules as
to the seaworthiness of the vessels they employ. A mer-
chant of great eminence in the City had informed him
within the last few days that he. had been compelled to
spend 3,8001. on ono of the vessels so chartered, though