The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1916-11-18
THE GREAT WORK OF A NOBLE
WOMAN
Caroline Chisholm's Efforts For Eng
lish Erigrants
The "Friend and Teacher" Of Flor
ence Nightingale.

Australia, fifth part of the world,
has had up till now only one saint, one
| legend. This saint is an English
woman. Without wealth and without
help she has done more for that New
| World than all the emigration societies
and the British Government. The rich
est and most powerful of earthly
| governments, master of India and of
an empire of 100000 souls, had failed
made good it's losses. A simple wom-
an, by her active benevolence and
strength of purpose, has succeeded
| and prevailed in the task" In this
manner did Michelet, the French his
| torian, write in 1860 of Caroline CHS
holm.
1t is but one of the many praises
that have been said of her and of her
great work. Punch laughingly called
her "the second Moses" for her expe.
ditions into the Australian Bush. Flor
ence Nightingale, the far-famed Eng
lish philanthropist, lovingly alluded to
her as her friend and teacher" Men
and women of all kinds wrote in laud-
alton of her efforts. 1t is surprising
that Catholics should know so little of
this woman, who in early womanhOod
was a convert to the Catholic faith
and who throughout her life OF serv-
ice ever held strongly to that religion
which she had embraced. Her story,
as told in Caroline Chisholm: The
Emigrant's Friend one of the inter-
esting pamphlets of the Catholic
Truth Society of London, recently pub
lished, will bear moments sum-
marizing.
Caroline Jones was born in North
ampshire, England, in May, 1903, and
was married early in life to Captain
Archibald Chisholm, in the East India
| Company's service. Two years after
her marriage, in 1882, she went with
| her husband to Madras, India, where
her charitable work was inaugurated.
| Struck by the vices found in the mill
| tary stations, she proceeded to work
against this sad condition, founding
her Female School of Industry for
young girls and the orphans of sailors.
| Six years later her husband moved to
| Australia for reasons of health, and
| there her great life work was under
taken. She applied to the governor
| for assistance in the establishment of
an Emigrants' Home, especially for
the protection of girls coming into the
colony. 1t was the day of emigration
from England and it's nearby depen-
denotes to the southern Island Cont
nent. Although her plan was looked
upon as visionary, she carried it
through successfully, enlarging on the
activities as she found heed. A reg
istry office for farm laborers was es-
tablished, and later she began her
long and dangerous travels into the
Bush ''in order to settle emigrants on
the land, to provide wives for existing
settlers, and personally to superip-
tend the conditions into which the
newly arrived emigrants were being
launched
In order to carry on this work, she
remained in Australia four years
longer than her husband. who had re-
turned to his post in India. Later he
gave up his occupation to join her and
to second her in her efforts. She
could not long confne these to mere
voluntary attempts at relief but was
obliged soon to seek better legislation.
| Most of the early emigrants to Aus
traia We're British convicts, eXiled
under the transportation system, some
of them for very minor offences. such
as violation of the game laws. Mrs.
Chisholm insisted that emigration
should be a family movement, and that
there should be a cessation of the veX-
atious regulations which hampered
such a desirable condition. She went
to England in 1876 to promote legis-
lation toward this end, to found the
British Ladies' Emigrant society, which
provided matrons on emigrant ships
and safeguarded the moral interests
of those on board, and to establish her
Family Colonization Loan Society, an
institution which in the first two years
of its life emigrated more than a thou
sand parties to Australia, and which
contributed greatly to a stable social
condition in the island commonwealth.
In 1853 she returned to Australia,
where she worked for twelve further
years. and poor health compelled her
to give up her activities. A small pen.
sion was granted her late in life by
the government for which she had
done so much. In 1877, less than thir-
ty years ago, she died in her native
England.
Caroline Chisholm sets an example
which can we'll be followed. The Unit
ed States today has problem of the
movement of peoples, it's immigration
problem. 1t is bound up intimately
with the social and civic questions OF
the city and the nation. These incom
ing people are mainly of the Catholic
| E0{A L., r.,