The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-03-23 00:00:00

PROSPECTS OF EMIGRATION TO CANADA.

From a return of papers relative to emigration, presen-
ted to both Houses of Parliament, we find that the work-
ing of the present system of emigration to that country
has tended greatly to the advantage of the emigrant. The
districts reports of Canada West. Mr. Buchanan. chief
agent of the emigration commissioners for the superin-
tendence of Canada, says, that
" They concur in representing that there is little, if any,
distress among the emigrants of last year, unless the con-
sequence of their own fatuity, Employment }s_ generally
to be•pronted at remunerative wages, and provisions and
necessaries are plentiful.
_ _

" Without desiring to raise unreasonable expectationi,
I may conclude by repeating Mr. Hawkes' remarks, that
the province is steadily advancing in wealth and popula-
tion, and is capable of sustaining, in comfort, a large
annual accession of labourers, provided they be trans-
ported to the places where their services will be required.
" Employment has been very plenty so far, and labour-
ers are. receiving 3s. to 3s. Gd. pit day ; masons, stone-
cutters, &c., Gs. to 7s. Gd. per day."
Mr. Hawkes, the chief agent for Kingston, Upper
Canada, says : •

" Duiing my visit to the western agencies, late in Sep-
tember last, I was agreeably surprised to gnd very few
emigrants unemployed, nor do I apprehend any difficulty
in finding work for a much greater number next year, if
the means to scatter them is placed at the disposal of the
agent ; for the province is steadily advancing in wealth
and population, and is capable of sustaining in comfort
almost any 'lumber of labourers, provided they can be
transported to the places where their services are required!"
Extracts from Earl Grey's despatch to the Earl of Elgin,
dated Downing-street, 29th January, 1847, in alluding
to Mr. Hawkes' report, part of which is quoted above:—
" This opinion (Lord Grey states) is confirmed by Mr.
Buchanan, the chief agent at Quebec; and it is a most
material fact in corroboration of it, that it is well known
that very many of those who have emigrated in the last,
or some preceding years, have been enabled to do so by
remittances received from friends or relations who have
gone out before them, and who, on their arrival in Ame-
rica, were as completely destitute of means as those whom
they are now enabled to assist with the savings they have
made from their earnings : thus showing how great must
be the demand, and how ample the remuneration, for
labour in America. Upon the whole, the information
before me leaves upon my mind a decieed conviction that
all that is necessary to do, in order to provide for the un-
usually large emigration which may be expected in the
present year, is to persevere in the system which has now
been acted upon with so much advantage, and to assist
the emigrants, by affording• them information as to the
places where they may hope to find work; furnishing
them also, when necessary, with the means of conveyance.
In this manner, at a comparatively small expense, the
whole of the emigrants who have hitherto reached the
province have been satisfactorily provided for; and by
extending the means employed, in proportion to the ex-
pected increase• in the number of emigrants, I see no
reason whatever to doubt that a similar result may be
hoped for bathe ensuing session,."