WOMEN IMMIGRATION.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXIII, Issue 20, 25 January 1911, Page 5

WOMEN IMMIGRATION.

A SERIOUS ALLEGATION

[press association.]

WELLINGTON, This Day

Every now and again it is publicly stated somewhere in New ZealamcF that things are not always as tliey should be in .regard to recent iimintfLgrants 1 , and -chairges of varying seriousness are nia.de against the character of some of the female passengers to New Zealand. The most recent allegation is by Mr Smith, a passenger by the Rotorua, who stated in a.n interview in the South that a number of .girls of "obviously loose cha.ract.er'" were in ported by the steamer. The charge was (referred to the Labor Department by a pressman. Tho vagueness of the charge was found to he the chief difficulty in the way of framing a reply, for the department did mot know whether Mr Smith was ireferring to assisted domestic servants or to female passengers who came oil their own account. The department denies the allegation could .refer to any assisteds who camie by the Rotorua. The lady in charge of the Women Employment- Branch minglled with tho women, and heard them talk, but- camie -across .no evidence whatever of the presence among them of girls of "obviously loose character."