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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4151, 10 July 1874, Page 2

Any ono wishing for an illustration of the conduct of a large stream of emigration to this Colony, and the difficulties attending it, may obtain one from the circumstances attending the departure from England, the voyage, and the arrival in this Colony in February, of the fine s.s. Mongol. But, at the offset, it must be understood that what appear to be facts must not be accepted as such till they have received a searching investigation. The mere perusal of despatches written respectively by the Minister for Immigration and the Agent-General, is but perfunctory work towards obtaining the object in view. In all human probability some of the peculiarities attending the case of the Mongol would bo found, on investigation, to pertain to the shipment of emigrants in other vessels that have been despatched. So, we select her as the “ shocking example.” Notwithstanding the difficulty that there is in getting to the direct truth, it is possible to arrive at a verdict the accuracy of which seems incontrovertible. But, in considering this, one feature ought to be allowed due prominence. The Agent-General had very heavy and important duties to perform in sending nearly 20,000 emigrants away in the course of not much more than a year. To tho Colony it was almost vital that the selection of so large a number should be most careful. Instead of stringency being relaxed in consequence of the quantity required, it should have been more rigid. At the same time, as the Minister for Immigration pointed out to the Agent-General, the fact that he was able to make the best possible terms with suitable applicants should have rendered his duties less onerous, as a better class of emigrants would be induced to apply for passages, if but the knowledge were brought home to them that they could have such by making proper application.

Anyone would have been warranted in anticipating that the emigrants in the Mongol would have experienced an especially favorable passage, and less of the discomforts of sea life in an emigrant ship than would accrue to them in an ordinary sailing vessel. The steamer, 2252 tons register, and 400-horse power nominal, might reasonably have been expected to make a fast passage. With only 313 emigrants on board, there must have been abundance of room for the comfortable accommodation of all. And the emigrants themselves were, it is fair to presume, of a superior class. In the vessel was Mr. Holloway, agent for the Laborers’ Union, who had been offered by Dr. Featherston a free passage, with £1 per diem travelling expenses for four mouths whilst in the Colony, and 265. per week sustenance money, to be paid to his family, conditional that he took with him not less than 200 agricultural laborers with their families. The emigrants in the Mongol would be, we presume, carefully selected, industrious, and attentive to sanitary regulations whilst on board ship. Perhaps her arrival did more towards shaking public confidence in the - system of immigration as carried on by the Agent-General than any other event that has occurred. Fears were at once expressed that other vessels on the water, likely to make longer passages, would prove to be either veritable plague ships or floating charnel houses. She was at once ordered into quarantine, and her state was first investigated by the Commissioners at Dunedin, and subsequently by a Royal Commission at Wellington. Tho general feeling was that blame attached somewhere, and that it ought to be sheeted home. There had been scarlet fever and other infectious diseases amongst the emigrants, and sixteen deaths had occurred.

From the reports of the surgeon-super-intendent and the gentlemen forming the Royal Commission, there appears to be no doubt as to the origin of the disease. The ship left Plymouth on December 23rd ; on the 24th there was one case of measles on board, and two of scarlet fever. In the depot for emigrants, belonging to the Imperial Government, and available for the use of any of the Colonies, immediately prior to the ship sailing, there had been one case of measles and two of scarlet fever. The emigrants, almost beyond question, took the seeds of disease with them on board the Mongol, and there these fructified. The SurgeonSuperintendent, in an exhaustive and able report, refers this to “a want of due care in the selection of emigrants, and a want of due inspection on being placed on board.” Children were shipped who were not likely to survive the voyage, others were bodily afflicted in divers ways, and one tottering feeble old woman, returned as aged 48, but appearing to bo about C 5, was with difficulty landed alive. The Royal Commission agreed that there had been no proper inspection of the emigrants when they were shipped. The selection, wo have before remarked upon. Very probably the Agent-General confided strongly in Mr. Holloway; but the injspection of a medical man before the emigrants wore shipped ought to have been a sine qua non. The Commission and the Surgeon agreed that proper diet for children, of whom there was a largo proportion, had not been put on board, and this too ought to have had the special attention of the Agent-General,

or some one appointed on his behalf. The Commission blamed the captain for not supplying the emigrants with a sufficient quantity of water, but evidence adduced at the Police Court induced the Bench to think that the charge could not be sustained. However, the facts are as we have given them. A fine, fast, and powerful steamer, the emigrants by which, we might have concluded, were a special lot, arrived with infectious disease on board. If this occurred on a large and nearly new steamer, how precise ought to be the arrangements for preventing fever on board ordinary sailing vessels.