The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-13 00:00:00

EMIGRATION TO SOUTII AUSTRALIA.

The want of labour, and the superabundance of the
most nourishing food in South Australia, as compared
with the absolute starvation and excessive population ex-
isting in numerous districts, both in England, and more
particularly Ireland, is a subject on which ourselves, and
the whole press of the empire, have constantly enlarged.
It is a subject of such vital importance at the present mo-
ment, when a termigant spirit is abroad, anxious for some
change from which the discontented and unemployed hope
to better their position, that it cannot be too closely
pressed home on the attention of government. The pos-
session by Britain, at such a time as the present, of a
territory at our antipodes as large as Europe, producing
everything necessary for the necessities, the comforts, and
the luxuries of civilised life, where millions might be
located, appearing only as a " drop in a bucket," and
where their presence would be felt only for good, appears
a divine coincidence to enable us to secure an asylum for
our starving thousands, and, at the slime time, extend our
commerce, enliven our trade and manufactures, and place
us in such a position, that no man willing to labour with
fair remuneration need be idle. The only question which
naturally arises is, " How is free emigration, on a large
scale, to be carried out ? "—and this is answered in a
pamphlet from the pen of Mr. Waghorn, the celebrated
overland traveller, and just published by G. Mann, Corn-
hill, and Ridgway, Piccadilly. In this he recommends—
" Emigration upon the widest and broadest scale, for the
future prosperity of that happy land to which we belong,
and thereby help to realise the dispensations of an Al-
mighty Providence, through whom has been discovered a
fifth portion of the globe, where every plant under the
sun may be grown in its nurture to fruitfulness ; for
every one is indigenous to Australia. if this be done at
all, to compass its ends, it must be done on the scale of
liberality; yes, and genuine liberality; and to begin it I
should have parliament to vote immediately £20,000,000,
to be appropriated and accounted for by a board of emi-
gration to be established for the purpose. This was the,
exact sum that my Lord John Russell succee'ed in getting

June 13, 1848!

from the then government, for the emancipation of slavery
throughout the British West India colonies, &c. ; and,
therefore, I have fixed that amount towards the ameliora-
tion of Ireland, for sending the Irish to the colony of
Australia, and then sheep's carcases will not be thrown
upon the dunghills of that country, as often described in
the public press."
Lieutenant Waghorn then recommends the following
plan for free emigration, on a liberal scale :—" At Ply-
mouth, at Portsmouth, at Chatham, and at Sheerness,
are ships of war lying idle, most of them have all the'
masts, sails, and cordage ready in the stores at these.,
ports. I would commission every one of them that collie._
be spared from the naval service, and with drafts of ix'
helmsmen, being gunners from her Majesty's ship Fa'
cellent, at Portsmouth, invite stout Irishmen to well,
them (each ship's crew, say six men to every 100 too)+
and I would send them to the Cove of Cork to real!e
emigrants from that spot, for the purpose of being locateaf
at the government expense, in Australia."
Assuming that £2O would be sufficient for each adult,
half a million of Irish might be located, and with half.thi:
proposed grant, or £10,000,000. The Australian wee'
trade has increased from a single bale of 250 ibs., a fe.w
years since, to 21,000,000 lbs. in 1847 ; and, if labour e°
adequately supplied, will, in ten years, amount to
100,000,000 lbs.

. .
Ireland has 300 persons, England 260, to each square
mile; Australia has 12 square miles to each individual.
Australia has nearly the area of Europe, with the popula-
tion of Northumberland. In this country the peoP'e
press on the sources of subsistence ' • in Australia the food
presses upon the people. Ireland has 3,000,000 dependent
on charity for subsistence ; New South Wales has sub-
sistence for 3,000,000, with only 180,000 persons to con-
sume it. TLere they are languishing to obtain what we
are anxious to get rid of. Each groans under the burden,
while disputing the right to bear it ; each prefers suffering
from the disease to paying the fee for the cure. Here
there are districts where the land, rent free, would not
afford 1 lb. of meat a-week to each starving inhabitant.
In the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales, in the
month of June last, it was stated, that this year, " no less
than 64,000,000 lbs. of meat would be wasted, sufficient to
feed 1,100,000 of those poor people who were starving le
England and Ireland." In New South Wales, the people
are 180,000, the cattle 2,000,000, the sheep 8,000,000,
being about 13 head of oxen and 50 sheep for each person.
The superabundance of food is wasted for want of mouths,
the corn is shed for lack of reapers, the wool is injured for
want of shearers, and, consequently, all descriptions of
produce either perish or are greatly depreciated, both in
quality and value. Herds of cattle and flocks of sheep are
boiled down" for tallow there, while thousands are fa-
mishing for want of food here ; there meat is wasting, here
men are wasting. Human skeletons pine here for what dogs
reject there. The balance between food and population is
unequal at home; it is unequal in New South Wales.
but it is the other way. In like manner, the scales of
labour and employment are uneven here ; they are as un-
even at the antipodts, but in the opposite direction : here
labour is too plentiful, there it is as much too scarce. We
have tried, and failed to bring the food to the starving
man—therefore, convey the starving man to his food, the
labourer to his hire, and you may restore the lost balance.
In Ireland, a scanty meal, at 2d. or 21d. per day was doled
out to sustain life; in New South Wales, the unskilled
labourer, full fed with ample rations, supplied with
dwelling and garden, found in tea, sugar, milk, and to:,
bacco, disdains to work under 2s. 6d. a-day besides.
destitution causes crime here, affluence leads to the sane
result there. Want here and abundance there, scarcity
and superfluity of labour—opposite extremes—end alike
in vice, indolence, insubordination, and social disorder.
Such is the spirit of Mr. Waghorn's plan and remarkg#
and by such a system, carried out with spirit and liberality
and certain regulations for repayment, it is highly probabl/
that, in from ten to twenty years, the whole amount would
be refunded.

Lord Ranelagh suggests, in a letter to the Time:, that,
by way of reprisal for the expulsion of Sir H. L. Buiwer
from Spain, the British government should seize and
sequestrate the Havannah and Manilla in liquidation,of
loans now of so much moment to the distressed capitalists
of France and England.
The total number of petitions presented to parliament,
up to the 30th May, in favour of a repeal of the Naviga-
tion Laws, was nine, and the total number of signature
was 2,268. The total number of petitions presented
against the repeal of those laws, and praying the house t°
refuse its sanction to any alteration subversive of the
nrinciples on which they are founded wa3 91, and the
signatures appended amounted to 32,908.
A THIEF DETECTED BY A PARROT.—A thief Was
detected in a singular manner, in this city, on Tuesdal
last. Mrs. Fisher, flour dealer, of Northgate-street,
whilst in the parlour adjoining her shop, was startled by 9
parrot which she keeps in her shop, loudly calling" Shoe,
Fisher, shop," and hastened into her shop to see what
was the matter. Not perceiving any person there, hour'
ever, she was about again to return to the parlour, whfe
the parrot again commenced screaming and repeating lts,,
firmer words. Mrs. Fisher, thereupon conceiving that
there must he some cause for the extraordinary cries.
of the bird, walked round the shop, and on the inside .of
the counter, close to the till, she discovered a little urchin,
about eight years old, crouching down to escape notice.
He had opened the till, and had 41d. in coppers, in his
hands, which he had stolen from it. A policeman was
sent for who recognised the boy as a common thief.
Gloucester Journal.
During January 147 horses were killed for food in
perlin; and though horse-flesh as human diet was onlY
introduced into that capital towards the end of last year,
522 horses, which furnished 244,6281b5. of meat, hav°
alreadybeen eaten by the Prussian hippophagi.
OUR MANUFACTURES IN SINGAPORE.—It appears verY
problematical whether British trade is likely to suffer veil
materially by foreign competition. A gentleman interested
in the continental trade observed, at the close of the year
1846 :—" Of Swiss and German cotton piece goods seve-
ral foreign arrivals took place, and among them were
invoices of a very inferior description. It is a singular
and
deperfectionrapid deplorable
in
progressf
ta hc
their
thatir
in articlestheth e Swissaasr
t of theyddwyyeeerrisne
dyeing
andn pyder ispnry
shave
also the weavers, are, without exception, in the saretients •
hotehGalsasegvoewr
arrivedliuses
whereas the English and Scottish manufacturer?
The
so
fromn ow
Turkssend as
andbeautiful
th is
cloth Turkeyis
r
at 4 dole. 65c. per piece. It is doubtful if a Swiss h°ll3
could sell at that rate without a loss. Again, Turkey
p noted shawls, 33 inches square, Glasgow manufacture,
a .11 at 24- dollars per dozen and as most of the Swiss
sports aro not better iu quality the holders m 3 s`. of
necessity come down to that price in order to realise.
This leaves an actual loss to shippers. The Turkey red
Glasgow dyed twist is, if not quite, almost as good as the
German dye, and may be
ag,ld, with a good profit, at
about 5 per cent. lower prices."
The same individual,
who draws a very glowing picture of the foreign trade,;
adds :—" The amount of common German glass an
hardware, cotton goods, and coloured twist is enorrnoin;
and even the auction rooms refuse at last their services.
—Simmonds's Colonial Magazine.
DELIGHTS OF A CANADIAN HOTEL.—After a fortniOlt'e,
patient experience of the comforts and acconornodataT;
of Madame St. hotel,' I have, at least, come to
t
conclusion that, whatever its other qualifications rnal be,
,_
it is a very uncouth, noisy place. Passing over the l") 0
of more ordinary and less scientific disturbances nue
likely to encounter in such an establishment, all our
ett
boarders are musical, and usually contrive to be talcd,
with the fit at the same moment. • The wing of the belld
ing in which I have at present the fortune to be locate ;
is wonderfully blessed in this respect. No. 15 scraPeer,
fiddle; No. 16 gasps into a flute; No. 17 pulls an acct 0
dion ; No. 18 saws a violoncello ; No. 19 scratches
guitar ; No. 20 blows a cornopean ; No. 21 grinds a bTs,
rel-organ ; No. 22—1 must enquire what No. 22 01'3'1
for it's something so novel and miserable that I, °ltl o
make him out—No. 23 sucks a hautboy; No. 24 Vlbroai is
a Jew's harp ; No. 25 whistles ; No. 26 sings ; Nu. dis
an actor, who occupies a room just over my head, an., ,
continually practising falls upon the floor, and
quial soliloquies a la Messrs. Kean and Macready•
as all these melodious sounds are simultaneous, and ble,_e
into one grand and general diapason, the effect upon trP(').
whole is of course sublime, and a listener becomes Pe
be
portionately enchanted with it. There is a knock at 'or.
door—" Come in !" A rather rakish looking 9°lo
gentleman, in nothing but a pair of ill-suspended arena
clothes, and glazed pumps, has entered—taken a long an
refreshing pull at the water-jug—and seated himself aillb
guidly on the bed, having previously disencumbered
sir,
mouth of a little superfluous saliva, and stationed
ls
at a convenient distance, for the support of
ItiscrpereitY
—wen, anellow yrra git along to daythe
tolerably," I reply, " how do you ?" " Well, much
dee,
same—l've given notice—l shall leave." „ 'Ny
what's the matter ? are not you comfortable ?
ye-es, it isn't that—it's those confounded cats ; did iost
ever in all your life hear such a row as they kicked uPfei
night ?" " They are somewhat troublesome I crthat
but their music is infinitely preferable to mac- here
I " Troublesome! I wish you hung out yv, of
I do ; there are three of 'em, and they make a porn,Ethe
holding all their concerts under my window. One °lmo
devils cries like a child, a second does nothing bd'stsge
and spit, and the third groans like a man in the last over
of cholera. I have upset innumerable jugs of wateTtbeir
'em, I've lost five pair of boots in flinging them at
heads, and this morning, early, I let the wash-han 0011
suddenly down on the tiles by a string; but thlvron't
molrowed. and spit, and groaned the louder, and It Ice Ice a
do you know—What do you drink ? I generally ato
cobbler." The bell is rung, the waiter anPes.'ret'o hie
cobblers are brought, No. 21 takes the straw 1_2.006
ventrA
mouth, imbibes the pint of sparkling liquid at straws _mush
an
nods his head, looks pensively at the empty tumhqshall
goes out, but puts his face in again, and says"' little
come and see you now and then, and if there's all. by-
thing I can do for you, just speak." "Thank Ys; barrel
the-by are not you the proprietor of that dismala de-
organ, which I hear occasionally ?" " Yes—it u knovi,
lightful instrument, isn't it ?" "Why, so that 37°
diietiya
tastes are apt to differ ; I wish, if it would be eroit quit 4
of no serious deprivation, that you wouldn't P 1843.7 melon:
so often." "Ah ! you would prohibit me
"astruinerl,
choly gratification, would you ? No, sir, thatl.ne friendi
was presented to me by a very dear and depart ea
a thin- °t
who, dying, requested me to grind it often, an but
him. " very feeling and kind of you, certin
of hos,
while you are so industriously engaged in. thinkino&org tot!
I wish, next time, you'd not forget to think of. begun to_
—good day !" No. 21 has disappeared and ecbvigour
than ever ; the fiddle has caught the infection., ti!oolet.!
grind away at the barrel-organ again with
man with the red eyes has followed suit on the flag in end
No. 18, with the violoncello, has become. similarlyautboy,
lated ; and the flute, accordion, guitar, to :oin theed
Jew's harp, have now dashed off once more
ch that
stand
cree
with a hum and a buzz, and a roar, and a It
elfe"
if anything earthly were at all calculated to ,
zus
a tolerable chance of frightening the very dew la
tnittlings from the West._ gr.eater_

Jane 13, 1848.