COLONIAL EMIGRATION.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1743, 19 February 1863, Page 5

COLONIAL EMIGRATION.

To the Editor of the Birmingham Daily Post. Sir, — I thank you for your kindness in inserting my letter on colonial statistics iv your Saturday's Journal, and I now, according to promise and with your permission, bog to devote my piesent letter to a consideration of the inducements offered by onr different Australian, New Zealand, and Cape Colonies to persons to emigrate thereto. At pie»eut none of the colonies are giving entnely ! free passages to men. .Several are, however, giving free passages to domestic female sei runts, so great is | the demand for this class in all the colonies. Tho plan most preferred by the colonial governments for bringing out emigrants is that of nominations by colonists, and the 2>>iy>ncnt by them of a small sum towards tho passage of each peison nominated by them. To those having friends at homo of the class required in the colony who they may wish to bring out this is a great boon, and those at home wishing to emigrate ami to join friends in the colony have only (where such nomination privileges prevail) to send a Post-office order or banker s letter of credit for the amount required to cover their passage, to those fuonds or to some trustworthy person in the colony, to obtain a passage warrant, provided tho smn voted by the Colonial Parliament is not all exhausted. The colony of New South Wales is one of those affording these immigration facilities, the labour re- , quiremeuts being for farm and rough labourers, ' artisans, domestic female servants, and coal miners. These last are now getting 11s. 4d. per diem, and the latest accounts report them on strike, upon the union or combination system so well known here, one object of which is to prevent men earning more than lls. 4d. per diem ; a onvious object an Englishman will think, w such high wages, ono would naturally suppose, would bring then own cine by a larger amount of labour offering to meet the demand, the tendenoy of which would be to 1 educe wages. The wages paid to labourers is from £30 to £40 per annum, with board and lodgings. Artisans 1 wages average 10s. per diem. Domestic servants, £20 to £25 per annum, with board and lodgings. Prices of provisions are : meat 3d. lb. ; bicad, lOd. 41b. loaf ; sugar, 4d. lb. ; tea, Is. Gd. to 2s. lb. ; butter, lOd. to Is. The colony of Victoria has within tho last few months gianled £65,000 towards defray aig the expense of introducing from tho United Kingdom persons nominated by friends in the colony, upon the following terms : For males under twelve years of ago a deposit of £4 will be required from those nominating ; above twelve and under forty years, a deposit of £8 ; forty years and upwards, a deposit of £9 ; females, under twelve years, £3 ; above twelve and under forty years, £4 ; upwards of forty years, £5. When it is considered that the ufiiial passage money for steerage is £15 to Melbourne, this is a great boon. £40,QP0 has also been voted for introducing into the colony single female domestics, selected in England by the Emigration Board of Commissioners or their agents. The class of labour most in demand iv the colony are carpenters, brioklayors, and plasterers, earning from, Bs. to 10s, per day of eight hour.B ; masons and smiths, 10s. to 125. ; labourers, 7s. to Bs. ; ploughmen, 20s. per week, with board and lodging ; farm labourers, 155., w ith ditto ; gardeners, £40 to £50 per annum, with ditto. Tho cost of provisions iv the colony in as follows :— Meat, 3d. to 4£d. ; bread, 41b. loaf, 6d. to 7t1. ; milk, 6d. per quart ; potatoes, ss. 6d. to Gs. per owt. ; and a fourroomed cottage may be rented from ss. to 10s. per week. The colony of South Australia, until lately, was giving entirely free passage to emigrants of both sexes. 'It is now restricted to siugle females only of the domestic class. Agricultural labourers, and certain classes, of artisans, can get out with their wives an,d two other children by payment of £4 eaoh male, and £3 each female adult, and half-prioe for childrpn ; they may also , obtain pauctge 'warrants, by means of a settler's nomination in the colony, upon payment of the above mmi, The class of persons most in demand, and tho -wages they are getting, are farm labourers and shepherds, £50 to £60 per annum, with board and lodging ; copper miners, 40s. to 50s. per week ; male domestic servants, £45 per annum, and female ditto, £22 per annum, with I board and lodging. Prices of provisions in the colony s are as follows :— Meat, 4cL per lb. ; Bread, Gd. to 7d. per 41b. ; butter, Is. per lb. ; potatoes, Id. per lb. j milk, sd. per quart, ,•- The colony of Queen.tlan.fi is. offering inducements n&the glume., of land grants of thirty acres to eac.b, adult ' paying his or her own passage. Persons paying half, their passage money, or £0, and half the same for children, are selected for assisted passages, to whota' are allotted portions of land in proportion, to the amount of money paid, fop passage. In< order to x encourage tho cultivation of cotton in, the oolony, and the intro-* dup{:ionof capital, and, labour foR T that ( purpose/ hduhtien have been j^tyte'd of £5 and' £iofoer bale of ]}Q 0 lbq, S»niple» of fine qualities of qoV

ton, the growth this colony^ we exhibited in the ItiternationaljExhibitioti/aud whioh demonstrate the suitability of soil and climate for its extensive cultivation., , The demaud and,, wage* given is: For farm' labourers and shephdrds, £30 £35, with 1 board and lodging; artisans, 60s. per, week; female,, -£20 to £26, with board and loagiug. t>l Squatters are ' also much wanted. Prices of provisions are the same as in New South Wales. , ,', „,',.,' Western Australia i» giving free passage to female domestics only, and it does so to males of the labouring, and artisan class as funds in sufficient amount accumulating from the sale of government lands J but at present wo have no advice of , there beinjjfiany for suoh a purpose. \ Tasmania does not give free or assitted passagea, but grants of land aro made to ' settlers of from 50 to 640 acres, in proportion to every pound sterling he may be worth m money, stock and implements, subject, however, to his cultivating the land. The persons most wanted, < and the wages they are getting, are: Farm labourers and shepherds, from £30 to £40 per annum, with board and. lodging ; artisans, Bs. to 12s. per diem ; female domestics, £20 to £35, with board and lodging. Prices of provisions aro as follows :<— Meat, 6(1. per lb. ; bread, 2Jd. ; potatoes, Bd. per cwt. ; sugar, 4£d. ; tea, 2s. As thi» letter is of a greater length than I expected, or intended it to bo, I reserve the colonies of New Zealand and South Africa for a future communication. I beg to subjoin the co2>y or a letter from Dr. Milligan, the Commissioner from Tasmania, and remain, Mr. Editor.— Your obedient servant, " J. Bate. Colonial Emigration Society, 8, Cherry Street, ; October 7th, 1862.

"International Exhibition, September, 1862. "My dear sir, — Let mo know how your society progresses in numbers, organisation, and means. You have, I presume, devoted yourself sedulotwly to canvass tho men of position and wealth in Birmingham and its neighbourhood, so as to form a compact and influential nucleus round whioh the lesser notables of your town will gather. "Your cause is sound in every way it can be viewed; Free Trade politicians must be pleased to see the equilibrium of tho labour market of the colonies and of the mother country maintained through your means ; rate-payers ought thankfully to survey your efforts, and vigorously lend their aid, as any action on your part must relieve them moro or less ; moralists ought to look wistfully and gratefully on your proceedings, as all yonr endeavours tend to reduce the number of tho needy and destitute in tho laud, and in proportion to abate crime ; commercial men should help you, as your labours will have the effect of converting the indigent, tho dependent, and the unemployed in the country to industrious, selfreliant, and well-to-do citizens; when, instead of having drones consuming the sweets of the time in idleness, as they do here, they will at once in the colony become aofcive producers iv some shape, and certainly large consumers of, and good customers for, British goods.— Behevo me, yours very faithfully, "Joseph Mtlwgan, " Commissioner for Tasmania, International Exhibition. -"To the Secretary of tho Col*-' , „ . „ SooieM' "' „«»»1 Emigration mmm _^ m^ j, jjirmmgham.