GIRL IMMIGRANTS. THEIR MORAL WELFARE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 25, 31 January 1911, Page 11

GIRL IMMIGRANTS. THEIR MORAL WELFARE.

A MOTHER SUPERIOR'S SHOCKING ALLEGATIONS. MR. COGHLAN'S REPORT. The New South Wales Agent-General (Mr. Ccghlan) has forwarded to the-Pre-mier of that State a report which he obi tamed of the conference in London last year, at which some damaging statements were made concerning the fate of the girl immigrants to the Commonwealth. The purpose of the conference was "to consider the necessity of more adequate protection for women migrating to Australia." It consisted of representatives of various emigration associations. A lady was in the chair. The enquiries which led up «to the meeting, Mr. Coghlan wrote, were set on foot by report© emanating principally from the Rev. R. L. Gwynne, at a meeting at Oxford House, Bethnal Green, when he stated that 30 per cent-, of the domestics who went to Australia met with a bad fate. Mr. Coghlan received from several well-known gentlemen connected with the prees, who were present, a, verbatim report of the remarks. On his drawing the clergyman's attention to them he emphatically denied having made the statement, "I regret, however," said Mr. Coghlan, "that he again made the statement to a meeting of ladies connected with women's societies at the Imperial Institute on 16th November. I know from the weekly report I receive from the Immigration Bureau of Sydney, and from a general study of the Australian press, that the statements made by Mr. Gwynne are entirely untrue, but being convinced that he is an irresponsible person, I should have allowed them to pass unnoticed, were ifc not for the fact that many respectable persons in this country, whose daughters or sisters have gone to New South Wales, are greatly upset by what has been so confidently asserted, and although these people are not willing to believe the statements as having any application to their own , relatives, they are being persuaded that the conditions surrounding the life of a domestic in Australia are peculiarly dangerous." "LOW MORAL ATMOSPHERE." The report of Mr. Gwynne's speech is to the effect that he had been chaplain on two or three steamers going out to Australia. It said : "Ho did not think that the arrangements on the big steamers were at all good. There ought to be some selection of the girls going out. It was very unpleasant to see the class of girl who went out 'on her own hook.' He read a paper before the Agents-Gen-eral on the subject, in which ho said that a groat many of the girls who went to New South Wales without proper care, or anyone to look after them, were to be found in. the streets very soon afterwards. An Australian lady who knew the country better than he did said the moral atmosphere was low. Of coures it was a new country. Public opinion grew very slowly, and the moral atmosphere was very low indeed. The Chief Justice of Melbourne had, in a speech in the Wesleyan chapel (he was a Roman Catholic), revealed the depths of corruption. The columns of the great Melbourne papers were filled with letters and details. It would be ' necessary to bring same definite cases before the Agents-General, and say that tli6y could not allow their girls to go out to Australia, and be as little cared for as they were at the present time. In New South Wales and Sydney, for instance, on Sundays, the whole place was filled with young people. Outdoor sports were carried on. There was a very low moral atmosphere indeed. Suppose a girl had been sent to service in a farmhouse, and left, where was she to goto? Did they know the kind of~6iulfll hoteirtM"'pubs' of the Australian township were? Did they know what kind of people went in and out of such places? He had been told by an Australian of a public house within two miles of his estate where not only were those who went provided with drink, but an enormous number of low women were kept there." SENSATIONAL STATEMENT. In the course of the conference a letter was read by the chairman (the Hon. Mrs. Joyce) from the Mother Superior of the G.F.S., diocesan president, and hon. secretary, dated St. Mary's Home, Rockhampton. It said : "I regret to say there are statii-na in the bush where no girl's virtue ie safe. One I know 01' where the wife herself ie no better than a decoy for her husband and cone. I heard quite recently that she had succeeded in getting two quite young girls from the Brisbane Immigration Depot — I suppose to Succeed the poor child un der age who returned here ruined some short time ago. . . This work brings us into touch with hospitals and gaol work, and brings facts bsfore us that one shudders to have to own as facts. After 20 years of rescue work in Victoria and Queensland, I can, without exaggeration, say that Queensland, and especially Central Queensland, are far more glaringly and audaciously immoral than the Southern Statee. I have heard more horrors in my five years here than, in 15 years' working in Melbourne slums, and as gaol ! visitor for the Church of England." AN OFFICIAL REPLY. Mr. E. r Rayment, acting director of the Immigration and Tourist Bureau, when interviewed in regard to the above', eaid : — "As far as this state is concerned there really seems to be nothing much to add to what Mr. Coghlan has said. As I far as Mr. Gwynnu's statements are con1 cerned there :t< no foundation for the alj legations that the ariangementa on the i ateamers are bad, as every precaution \ is taken to see that the girls are properly supervised during the voyage. The girls are subject to a rigid system of selection, and in practically every case have turned out most satisfactorily. Mr. Gwynne has previously made a number of rash statements regarding immigration mattews in Australia, but when challenged to prove them has been forced ! to withdraw his remarks unconditionally. I He appeals to be somewhat sore that the Agents-General have declined to fall in with the scheme which he propounded for bringing out a- number of unemployed, and that ia probably the reason of his bitterness. The raeh statements which he makes regarding immoral conditions in Australia generally are an indication as to how much reliance can be placed upon his remarks concerning immigration. As to the Queensland references," concluded Mr. Rayment, "I tan, of course, say nothing."