MRS CHISHOLM, THE EMIGRANTS’ FRIEND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIII, Issue 5950, 22 March 1880, Page 6

MRS CHISHOLM, THE EMIGRANTS’ FRIEND.

lIOTHBB OP THE lADT 3IATOEESS OP DTTBIiIN, The following particulars relative to Mrs Chisholm, the •‘Emigrants’ IWbnd,” mentdoLcd in the Lady Mayoress of Dublin 8 telegram, may be of interest. They are Bummarised from David Blair's'“History of Australasia Mrs Chisholm arrived in Sydney in 1839, with her children aiid husband, Captain Archibald Chisholm, of the Madras Army, who had been mating a tour of the Australian Colonies during a limited sic* leave. On returning to Indid he decided to leavehis family in New South Wales. » r . It was Ilia uprotected position of female and .often friendless emigrants that awakened Mrs Chisolm's warmest sympathies. She coihjnenced her work by gathering information and acquiring the confidence of the working classes. She found young women who had Emigrated lodging in tents With companions of indifferent character, others wandering friendless through the streets of Svdney. Many of them having been collected _ in rural districts, knew more of cows snd pigs than housework, and, if engaged in town, soon lost their situations, and were superseded by more accomplished servants from Ships which arrived daily. Mrs Chisholm began by appealing to the Press and to private individuals on behalf of ( the poor destitute girl immigrants. At first she met with much Discouragement, a few civil. speeches—no assistance. But she pressed on her plan -of a “Home,” and when almost defeated, was nerved to determination by the sight of a Highland beauty—“poor Flora”—whom she had known a happy, hopeful girl, drunken and despairing, contemplating and hastening to commit suicide. Mrs Chisholm offered to devote lier time gratuitously to a “home of protection,” and to endeavour to procure intuations for the immigrant girls unengaged and out of place in the country—an offer which was eventually accepted after “she had given an, undertaking not to' pat the Government to any expense!” The Government building appropriated to the iome consisted of a lo w wooden barrack 14ft square. She found it needful for the protectma of the characters of the girls to sleep on. th® premises. A store room, 7ft square, without a fire-place,'and infested with,nits, was cleared out for her. ■ accommodation. There she dwelt—eating, drinking, and sleCp-iTig—-dependent on the kindness of a prisoner employed in . the adjoining Government Printing-office for a Kettle of hot water for . tea, her only luxury; and there she laid the foundation of a system to which thousands owe their happiness in this world, and in the world to come—saved from temptation to vice ' and put on the road to industrious independence.’ But there was no machinery extant for finding occupation for her charges, so Mrs Chisholm resolved to ebnd them into the country. The first clrvy that came to the door was sent sway empty. Frightened with foolish ’hoard ship stories of blacks and bushrangers, 1 wot one girl would ' go. A second attempt, ' the first failure having been kept a sodret, was ‘ BBceessfoL . Mrs Chisholm, at her own risk and expense, took a party up the Hunter river district by steamboat. The enterprise was considered so Quixotic by her friends that,! as she sat on the deck in the centre of the troop

of girls, no one of her acquaintance dared to expose themselves to the ridicule of owning acquaintance by offering anyrefreshment. Xet her plan succeeded; the' girls ■were; well placed in' the families of reupeetable married people, and committees were induced to undertake the charge of branch homes in the interior. The bush journeys were repeated with ' parties of young women, varying from sixteen to thirty, who were conveyed to various localities, where' she went from farm to farm, scrutinising the characters of the 1 residents before ahe trusted them with “her children.” Very ; soon the fathers, brothers, sons, and husbands, claimed the same care, and ashed to be permitted to form part - of her parties. Her journeys became longer, and her armies larger; 144 souls left Sydney, which increased on the load to 240/in one party, in drays and on foot, 'RT-ra Chisholm leading the way on horseback. This abuse of power by captains, and the immorality of the inferior sort of Eurgeonsj at that time engaged in the Australian trade, were checked by-a prosecution which she compelled the Governor, Sir George Qipps, to Institute against parties who had driven a girl mad by .their violence. That trial established, a precedent and checked the abuse. By the end of 1842, Mr Chisholm had sncceeded in placing comfortably 2000 immigrants of both sexes; and then, when slowly ■recovering from the effects of a serious illness, brought on by her exertions, she published a book, which did good service in the cause of immigration reform. The whole coat to the Government of the guarding and distribution of the immigrants was little more than £100; the other expenses were bom by Mrs Chisholm and her friends.