THE WELLINGTON EMIGRATION FUND.
Tim Wellington Emigration Fund was announced in rather a special manner a few weeks back, and we have in vain awaited some further information about it. We saw that it was recommended by some practical considerations, but it was commended for some incidents which are questionable, and we missed one assurance which is very necessary. The state of the unemployed poor has called attention to emigration as a resource ; and broadly to state the case, there is no doubt that the labouring man who is unemployed in this country mi ,ght if he were well placed in a colony, not only maintain himself and contribute to the wealth of the community, but elevate himself in the scale of society. Weimar not unfrequently of persons belonging strictly to the labouring class— waggoners, washerwomen, and washerwomen's husbands—who are now developing prosperous establishments in some of the Australian colonies, or are contemplating retirement upon their estates. But a great difference has befallen between the emigration which was carried on a few years since and that of the present day. What may be called the general labour-market in the United States and British North America is sufficiently supplied by the casualties attendant upon employment in all the branches of labour, so that persons who go out upon vague expectations, without definite prospects, are likely enough to be prevented from obtaining labour by finding that others, who are on the spot, are equally unemployed, and preoccupying the ground, are certain to obtain the preference. The very fact of a capitation tax of one dollar imposed on every emigrant imported into New York, as a guarantee against his becoming a chargeable pauper, is a proof of the necessity which exists for checking the increase of the unemployed surplus in the labour-market, even in the American Republic. The same kind of necessity exists in Canada. It is still the fact that large numbers of emigrants are carried over. It is known that the remittances from the United States in the eight years ending with 1855 inclusive amounted to 8,00,0004— more than a million a year. The Australian Colonies send back to this country considerable sums publicly appropriated by their Legislatures, and some forty or fifty ships will probably be despatched in the early part of the present year. But all these remittances are destined to special purposes. The Australian Colonies require particular labourers to be sent to them, and the selection is made here according to the orders of the colonies. The remittances from North America are private, transmitted by emigrants who desire their relatives to follow. The unemployed have called for a State subsidy. Now if it were known that the State were sending out emigrants, those private persons in North America who send small sums to assist their relatives would keep their money, and would advise their relatives to apply to the State ; so that a subsidy of some few thousands—say it were fifty or even one or two hundred thousands,—would have the effect of stopping the larger portion of the supplies from the United States. Thus a grant of 200,000/. would almost to a certainty arrest the remittance of the million, and there would be a positive loss to this country and its emigrants of 800,000/.
The same objection does not apply to a private society, because the Mends in America or the Australian Colonies will know suite well that they cannot count upon a charitable institution either to send the particular friends whom they want or the particular labourers whom they need. The funds of a charitable society, too, can be applied with a greater freedom, and with a greater accuracy, to the especial wants of the persons on whose behalf the fund is raised. In every respect the private society is better than a direct State interference.
One principle in the contemplated operation of the society is very doubtful. It is proposed that the emigrants shall consider the advances made to them as a debt which they are bound to repay. Now there have been many instances of this plan, and very few of its success—indeed, we believe none. The emigrants do not pay the debt; and for obvious reasons. As soon as they collect sufficient money,—and that is sometimes a long while afterwards,—they desire to bring after them some of their relatives, and the pressure of private preference has almost invariably
diverted any disposable funds which the emigrants might have in hand. At the same time, we may learn, by the experience of the volunteer fund from North America, that a full amount of compensation is made to society at large by this spontaneous disposal of the emigrants' funds. It would probably be better if the society gave its aid and left the return to the free trade of the affections. This consideration will perhaps tend to correct any error into which the founders of the society may fall as to the amount of good they may do with a given supply of means and another consideration will establish a further limit. In all cases of emigration which are successful, whether public or private, there is in the colony some machinery for receiving the emigrant, maintaining him, and procuring him employment. The relatives do it in North America; the public emigration agency does it in the Australian Colonies. The charitable society should have a special machinery for that purpose ; unless, indeed, it could establish friendly relations-with existing agencies in the Colonies and with the Emigration Commissioners at home. In any case, it is a point to be well considered, and it may constitute a demand upon the funds.
One aid a society so influential and so useful could probably obtain from the Emigration Commissioners. It would be the ruseof the machinery for the shipping and conveyance of the emigrants. That machinery is the best that has yet been constructed tor the purpose—it could scarcely be improved. Whatever the terms exacted, it would be economical in the matter of expense, and still more in the certainty of carrying out the emigrants in Comfort, health, and efficiency.
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