AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 8, 11 January 1899, Page 5

AMERICAN IMMIGRANTS.

'-"-■•'": ■' ■ :" ——»' ■ "...fj.'/fj* ■: • Commissioner-General T. V. Powderly,'-.;' of the United States Immigration IJureati, in his annual report' to the Secretary ,-o_C 'the Treasury gives the total number 'of immigrants who arrived 'in the United ':. Slates during the last ,fiscal year aB ■~ 229.239, a decrease1 as compared' with the fiscal year 1597 of 1563. .Of .th'e;whqle-?ri'iui^|-| ber, 135,77H were males and 93,534 females;-;. A. ' 10,037 came into the United States through. . Canada. During the year 3030 were de- ■■A barred, and of this number there v,eie 13 likely to become a public charge. 257 disinsane, one idiot. 2261 paupers or persons eased persons, two convicts, 79 assisted ; .> immigrants, and 417 contract labourers,- ■- One. hundred and ninety-nine were returned within one year after landing. ■ Of •.:. the whole number oyer 14-years of ago,,,' 1410 could not write;-' 43,057 could neither read nor write: 27,608 over £0 years of a^e,. •'-.'. had $30 or over, and 96,203 had less than X. 530. The total amount of money shown.: i.:, ■; by immigrants during the . year was1 $3,872,077, but the actual amount ..''; overwasprobably in, excess of this amount,- \ Of the whole number of arrivals. 65.613. ,/> came from Italy, 27,2a ; fr_om Russia.■ i P.ro-i;\; J,*| per, 2f>,l2S from Ireland,'l7,lll from Ger-;. : --A many, 1C,559 from Hungary. 12.42U from A'l Galicia ' and Burkowina;-;l;(in Austria.-, Ay Hungary), 12.29S from Sweden, and 9987-:'-? from England.' The Commissioner stig- Z'j gests an amendment to the laws except-•-,-: ing immigrants shown to be^afflicted with a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease from the right of appeal or of a . ; hearing before the Board of Special In- . quiry. He also recommends that the head .;■ tax be increased from $1 to $2, /so as..to '. A_ furnish a fund sufficient to enlarge the bureau's operations.' -It Is also recommended thai the Act which prohibits the. ■''. expenditure of a greater sum for immi- ; gration purposes than shall be collected at the port be repealed. Mr;tPowderly. ;....'; states that the naturalisation laws of the-;;. -; United States have been repeatedly -vlo- ' - •_ lated, and in his opinion each arriving : v; immigrant, when admitted to the United '_ZA States, should be provided with a landing certificate. A record of the facts stated in tlie said circular as to each immi-...-_' grant, to be known as an immigrant directory, should be kept for each fiscal ' year by the Bureau of Immigration. An O Act of Congress authorising such a course of procedure and requiring of the alien -. presenting himself for naturalisation to produce such a certificate or a duplicate from the immigrant directory would factlitate the work of the Courts, and go far towards preventing the issuance 'of ~;•;■] fraudulent naturalisation, papers. : ' , Air Thos. Culpau, Deputy Registrar, is busy at the Government buildings, receiving applications for pensions under the Old Age Pensions Act, 1898. Up to one o'clock to-day in all about 500 applications-have been received, besides 50 which should have been addressed to other sub-districts. These have been duly forwarded to the pror Z'A per authorities. ■ . •