FIFTY YEARS AGO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22215, 16 September 1935, Page 6

FIFTY YEARS AGO

DIRECTING EMIGRATION PROPOSALS IN BRITAIN The necessity for the British Government to take a share in directing and controlling the steady stream of emigrants leaving Great Britain, instead of trusting solely to the activities of companies, was being realised 50 years ago, as shown by the following extract from the New Zealand Herald of September 16, 1885: " The great wave of feeling in favour of emigration as a means of relief from the evils of' overcrowded population, which is sweeping over tie British isles, is producing new schemes for facilitating the course of emigrants. A deputation waited recently on the Secretary of State for the Colonies, for the purpose of creating a bureau of emigration, which might be available for providing to the people full and unbiassed information as to the actual condition of the several fields of emigration. The deputation consisted of delegates from a vast number of emigration societies, which have recently arisen, and was introduced by the Marquis of Lorne, who showed the evils resulting to . emigrants themselves from incomplete information as to the position of affairs in the several colonies.

" The Secretary gave his approval to the movement and undertook to bring the matter before the Government. Among the modes of operation it is proposed that information to emigrants from the central bureau should be available at the post office free of cost. All this goes to show a tendency to consolidation in the great emigration movement, the result of which will unquestionably have a powerful bearing on the future of the colonies."