FEMALE IMMIGRANTS

Southland Times, Issue 14634, 26 January 1911, Page 5

FEMALE IMMIGRANTS

ALLEGED IMPROPRIETIES BROADLY DENIED. (Special to the “Tlmes.”)^ CHRISTCHURCH. January 28. Some disquieting statements regarding the importation of domestic servants to New Zealand under the system of assisted passages were made 'to a "Lyttelton Times” reporter by Mr S. Smith, an officer of tne Bradford Corporation, who is at present visiting New Zealand. Mr Smith travelled to the Dominion by the New Zealand Shipping Company's steamer Rotorua. Included in the filll complement of about GOO passengers were a number of people whose migration to New Zealand had been facilitated by the system of reduced fares. During the voyage, Mr Smith stated, a variety of circumstances directed his attention to a number of young women who, he understood, were being conveyed to the Dominion for employment as household servants. Enquiries which he made on the vessel justified his conclusion that many of them were quite unsuitable for sue* positions. They were the product of the slums of London and their past lives, of the character of which they gave unmistakeable demonstration on the ship, should prohibit their employment in any home. As far as he could ascertain the women had associated themselves with some religious organisation, and by cloaking their real purpose under a display of reform and a desire to lead a new life, had gained the reduction of passage money. That his assumption wasn't without foundation was shown by the fact that some of the women who were supposed to be single were accompanied by their husbands. This circumstance suggested the conclusion that at the first opportunity' these married women, would leave the positions for which they were engaged and join their husbands. A few of the women were within a short period of confinement. There had been many complaints among the respectable passengers, Mr Smith said, of disorderly, behaviour on the part of the women to whom he had referred. Their conduct became disgraceful during the stay at Hobart, where they seemed to give' full license to the instincts which they had suppressed up to that port. They went ashore and were afterwards taken aboard in a condition of helpless drunkenness. Mr Smith added that his, statement did not extend to a number of Scotch girls who were emigrating to New Zealand to. enter domestic service. They seemed to him to be entirely suitable girls of excellent conduct and good character.

The matter was referred to* the Labour Department by the Wellington representative of the ’‘Lyttelton Times’* Miss Bremner, the officer in charge o£ the Wellington women’s employment branch, who met the Rotorua on reaching here, stated positively that the allegation could have no reference to the 4 assisted female passengers on board. She mingled with the women and heard them talk, but came across no evidence whatever of the presence among them, of girls of obviously loose character such as Mr Smith had described. “We are in a position to state positively that tli ere has been no general state of immorality on any of the vessels which have come in here for years past,” said a highly placed official of the Department. “We take exception to the statements that have been made if they are meant to refer to assisted passengers, for we are sure that there is no justification for them. Ws far as the women who pay their own passages, what can we do? Nothing at all. The ship’s officers are the only ones who could even attempt to restrain ,their actions in any way while at sea.” Mr Isaac Gibbs, manager.of the New Zealand Shipping Company, when approached by a reporter said that the first intimation he had had of any complaint about the conduct of immigrants on the Rotorua was the publication of the interview. He could not understand why Mr Smith had bottled up his complaints. instead of making them when the steamer arrived and when they, could have been proved or disproved. The captain's report made no mention of complaints by passengers, and if complaints were made they were supposed to be entered and reported. Mr Gibbs said that he could not imagine that the charges were true. The .steamer was under the command of Captain Sutcliffe, who would certainly not have permitted the state of things alleged to have existed. Mr Gibbs adiiea that, in the absence of definite information on the subject, he could not enter into a discussion of the charges, inquiries, however, would be made. It seemed extraordinary lo him that tha characters of girls , coming to a new* country should be assailed publicly in the way they had been by a gentleman, who was perhaps no better qualified to judge than was any other person. A W.C.T.U. PROTEST. CHRISTCHURCH, January 35. At a meeting of the Christchurch Women’s Christian Temperance ’Union, held to-night a discussion took place regarding the administration with regard to those coming in nominally as domestic servants, and the following resolution was carried; —“That, in view of Ilia statements that have been made regarding the character of some of the persons arriving in the Dominion under Government assisted immigration, as Well as the circumstances under which they obtain assisted passages and the lack of adequate supervision during the journey, this Union urges the Government to at once Institute strict inquiries into the matter with a view to ensuring that for the future assisted immigrants shall be of a bona fide respectable, suitable and deserving class and shall be subjected to proper supervision during the passage.