IMMIGRATION RETURNS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XIII, Issue 774, 7 April 1860, Page 4

IMMIGRATION RETURNS.

The extent and cost of the Immigration carried on at the expense of this province since the agency in London was entrusted to Mr. Fitzgerald, are exhibited in full accounts furnished by that gentleman to the Provincial Government, from which we haze been permitted to extract the most important particulars. The figures given below are, so far as they go, arranged in the same form in which they were tabulated by the Agent, but some additions have been made, as for instance the dates of arrival of the later ships which Mr. EitzGerald was of course riot in a position to supply. The returns in this shape bring down the account accurately to the present date:—

(a) The bill holders are not included in this calculation. (6) The schoolmaster and matron are not charged for, but are included in the numbers. , (c) One man is only charged for half passage money. The account includes sixteen, vessels, and extends over a period of eighteen months, in which time 3758 souls were landed on our shores from England. Of the total number, the adult males (above 14) were exactly onethird, to which extent, it may be said, therefore, that the labouring population has been increased. The stream of immigration has flowed quickest from -England between the month of April and October, arriving in this country from July to January, avoiding as much as possible the slack season of our year. By two ships which reached us in the end of 1858 we received 672 souls; by ten ships during 1859, we received 2405 souls ; and by four ships in 1860, 681 souls. The largest number contained in one ship was the first on the list—the Zealandia, 356; the smallest was the last but one—the Ambrozine, 59. In the earliest months of the immigration the living freight in one ship four times exceeded 300, but this figure has not been reached by any arrival during the past twelve months.

The first cost of immigration appears to have been throughout at the average rate of £3000 per ship, and of something less than £16 4s. per statute adult; though the latter figure does not seem to be borne out by the detailed statement, from which, if we understand it aright, a first cost of nearly £17 per statute adult is to be inferred. However this may be, a sum of £16,772 furnished at once in cash by the emigrants themselves reduces the outlay'on the part of the province by more than one-third; and another third is made up of promissory notes and bills given hy friends in the colony, all of which are repayable to the province, amounting in the whole to £15,687 13s. 6d. The ultimate cost to the province of introducing this addition of 3758 souls to the population will therefore be only £15.888 or. £4 4s. 6|d.—though the calculatiou by statute adults makes the disbursement of the province £5 3s. Bd.—per head. At the

same time the emigrants have advanced in pre-payment of their own passages £6 7s. lOd. and rendered themselves or their friends liable for a further payment of about £5, per statute adult. . , • In looking down the account it is observable how much the cost of immigration has fallen; and particularly how much in proportion the ultimate liability of the province has decreased. The first ship of the fleet, the Zealandia, brought immigrants who cost nearly £18 per head at first and £6 per head ultimately : the same ship on her second voyage was taken up at £17 65., and her immigrants will cost £5 Os. 7d. The Clontarf, arriving in January 1859, cost £17 13s v and will cost £6.35. 6d. in like manner; but when the vessel came out a second, time, during the past month, the figures were reduced to £16 lls. and £3 2s. 7d. respectively. This diminution of expenditure is accounted for partly by the increased value of the bills given in the colony, the later ships bringing out a large number of friends of old settlers; and partly by the increased ratio of payments by promissory

notes. . It should by no means be forgotten that the immigration from the United Kingdom is not all comprised in these figures: for in each ship not a few cabin, intermediate, and steerage passengers have been brought to our shores who are not indebted to the Provincial Government for any assistance, and who among them have imported considerable capital into the province. At a low estimate we should place this additional number of. immigrants at 450 souls.

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