The Press. TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1874.

Press, Volume XXII, Issue 2680, 10 March 1874, Page 2

The Press. TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 1874.

The amount of illness and mortality on board the immigrant vessels which have lately arrived in New Zealand is a very serious matter. Of course in carrying on any extensive system of immigration, under the most carefully considered arrangements things must be expected to go wrong sometimes. Some sickly emigrant will contrive to pass muster; Borne cause of disease will be overlooked; some person in trust will prove incompetent; and in a three months' voyage across the full breadth of the Tropics, any such mischance wilt have time and opportunities to produce its most fatal effects. But such cases ought to be extremely exceptional, whereaß of late they have been the rule. The sanitary condition of the immigrants who have come out since the beginning of the year has been alarmingly bad. Vessel after vessel has arrived laden with disease. Every immigrant ship is a floating harbor of whooping cough, measles, and scarlet fever. In Otago, at this moment, the quarantine station is crowded to excess; for so rapidly have the fever-stricken ships followed each other that there has been no time to be relieved of one set of occupants before room is required for the next. It must be remembered, too, that these vessels have brought immigrants for other provinces, and that —as we have just been disagreeably reminded —there is the greatest risk of the seeds of disease being conveyed by them to all parte of the colony. There are three points in the practical management of immigration which require the utmost attention. First, the careful selection of immigrants, so as to ensure that no applications shall be accepted from persons not in a state to undertake the voyage. Secondly, a thorough inspection of the immigrants before they are received on board, with the view of weeding out any unhealthy subjects. Thirdly, diet and sanitary arrangements during the voyage. On the last point we believe that, till recently,there has beenasarulenogreat ground for complaint. Lately, however the deficiencies have been serious. The evidence taken by the Mongol Commissioners at Wellington is reported to be highly unfavourable. Mr Holloway, who was a passenger in the Mongol—and who came out, as he says, partly to ascertain for himself the treatment and accommodation which emigrants receive on a voyage from England to New Zealand —pronounces the present system, or the way in which it is carried out, " faulty in the extreme." He adds that he has several suggestions to offer, which, if adopted, " will materially increase the comfort " and well-being of the emigrants." His testimony is valuable, being the result of the personal observation and experience of a thoroughly independent and competent person. We hope that the G-overnment will take advantage of it. They will do well to invite Mr Holloway to explain in what respects he finds the existing arrangements so extremely faulty, and what are his proposals for their amendment. In the two other points we have mentioned, there is unquestionably great room for improvement. To speak plainly, the conduct of immigration for some time past has been marked by gross negligence. The official reports upon the Mongol, the Scimitar, and the Carnatic, afford abundant proof. The Surgeon-Super-intendent of the Mongol stated that when the emigrants were taken from the depot at Plymouth they were in an unhealthy state, " scarlet fever and measles having " previously appeared amongst them." Several intending emigrants were in consequence left behind j and " on the " morning of the day that the steamer " sailed from Plymouth, a family was " sent on shore, because its members " had only lately recovered from scar- '• let fever, and were in a very weak " state therefrom." ' The Doctor did not venture to take the responsibility of detaining the vessel, as the emigrants were apparently well on the day she sailed ; " but on the following day " fever and measles appeared among " them, and remained throughout the " passage." In the case of the Scimitar we learn that disease had broken out before the vessel sailed from Plymouth, and that " two families were put " ashore two days before she left, " having had fever." The result was twenty-six deaths. That these two ships, one after another, should have been allowed to sail under such circumstances is surprising, and indicates an extraordinary want of supervision on the part both of the Government officials and of the agents of the Immigration Department. Of the Carnatic, again, the Surgeon reports that one family of immigrants had been ill with scarlet fever shortly before leaving home. He very reasonably infers that they brought infection with them, and that to their presence on board is attributable the outbreak of fever which, besides a large amount of illness, cost six or seven lives. Instances like these are conclusive. A single one might be accounted for, or passed over as an accident. But occuring repeatedly, they prove that no care has been taken by the agents entrusted with the selection of immigrants and that whatever medical inspection the emigrants are required to undergo is so superficial as to be practically no better than a farce. Such a state of things demands

instant remedy. The interference of the Government is called for in the interests of humanity, and alike for the sake of the immigrants as of the people among whom they are introduced. Nor is it less necessary for the maintenance of the immigration. Hitherto the distance of this colony from the home country has stood greatly in the way of our obtaining any large number of agricultural laborers as immigrants. They are a class who instinctively shrink back from anything outside their own experience, and the prospect of the long voyage to New Zealand, with its unknown and therefore all the more frightful dangers filled them with dismay. This difficulty seems to have been overcome. New Zealand is at present much in favor among intending emigrants, and —thanks to the active exertions of the Agent-General and the efforts which the Colonial Government has been persuaded into making—there is every probability of as large a stream of immigration as could be desired. But the stream may easily be checked at the outset. Already, we fear, the reports sent bmne by [passengers by the Mongol, or Scimitar, or Carnatic, will have been the reverse of encouraging. And a continuance of similar reports will go far towards stopping immigration outright. Few persons will think of migrating to iSiew Zealand if it becomes known that they take their passage at the risk of their lives, and that eyery shipload of emigrants stands in imminent peril of being literally almost decimated on the way.