2

D.—2a.

No. 2. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Colonial Secretary. 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sir— 12th April, 1873. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of the Hon. Mr. nWaterhouse's Memorandum of 27th November, 1572. In this Memorandum Mr. AVaterhouse says—" 1 trust that the arrrangements made regarding the conveyance of these immigrants will be of a superior character to those which have hitherto prevailed. It is very unsatisfactory to the Government, as it must be to the AgentGeneral to have the repeated complaints which have arisen in connection with the conduct of immigration. The Government can see no sufficient reason why the arrangements as regards the introduction of immigrants to New Zealand should be less perfect than those of the English Emigration Commissioners, at the period when under their auspices such a large stream of immigration was passing into Australia. I believe such a continuous repetition of complaints as regards the character and accommodation of the vessels in which emigrants are being forwarded, is without precedent of late years. The risk to which they would appear to have been exposed is not fair to the immigrants themselves, whilst it exposes the Colony at large to the possibility of the introduction of fatal forms of disease." In a subsequent Memorandum, dated 23rd November (No. 19, 1872), the Hon. Mr. Waterhouse states: —" In no case should any vessel be chartered which is not classed AI at Lloyd's." In these Memoranda there are three distinct charges preferred : — (1.) That the character and accommodation of the vessels " employed in the service is of an inferior description." (2.) That repeated complaints have been made by the emigrants. (3.) That the requirements of the Passenger Act have been either not at all, or very imperfectly complied with. I now proceed to deal with these charges seriatim and in the order in which I have stated them. I.—Character of Vessels. I append a statement (marked A), showing that all the ships employed by me for the conveyance of emigrants to New Zealand were classed AI, or Aal at Lloyd's, and giving the particulars of the services in which those vessels have been previously engaged. 2. His Honor the Superintendent of Otago declares that the ships formerly sailing from the Clyde to Otago constitute "the finest fleet in the world." I beg to observe that the ships "Queen Bee," "Agnes Muir," "Warwick," " Jessie Readman," "Chile," " AVild Deer," " William Davie," "May Queen," "Christian McAusland," and "Margaret Galbraith," employed by me in the emigration service, constitute a part of that fleet. 3. The Superintendent of Canterbury stated in the course of a debate during the last Session of the General Assembly that the service conducted by Messrs. Shaw, Saville, and Co. for the Canterbury Government had been of an " entirely satisfactory character." Of the ships employed in that service the following have been employed by me in conveying emigrants to New Zealand during the last eighteen months—namely, "Merope," "Hydaspes," "Zealandia," "Charlotte Gladstone," and " Crusader." 4. In addition to the ships already named, the " Halcione," " England," " City of Auckland," and " Ballarat," have been employed in past years in the conveyance of emigrants to Wellington, Auckland, and Hawke's Bay. 5. It will thus be seen that of the thirty-five ships despatched by me between the 29th July, 1871, and the 17th November, 1872, twenty-one ships had been previously employed in conveying emigrants to New Zealand, without, so far as I am aware, any complaints having been made as to their character or accommodation. Now, as regards the other eleven ships, the highest possible testimony has been afforded by the Emigration Commissioners in New Zealand as to the adaptability of the three foreign vessels, " Friedeberg," " Palmerston," and " Hovding," for the conveyance of emigrants ; and it is generally recognized here, that no finer merchant vessels have sailed from the Thames than the " Lady Jocelyn " and the " Forfarshire." AVith respect to the remaining six ships, I havo up to the present time received no complaint worth mentioning except as regards the " Bebington," which I shall make the subject of a separate despatch. 6. As to the sailing capabilities of the emigrant ships, I would observe that of the eighteen or twenty vessels of whose arrival I have been advised, the average passage has been ninety days, and that one of them (the " Merope ") has made the fastest passage on record —namely, seventy-five days from land to land. ll.—Alleged Complaints by the Emigrants. This charge will be best met by giving an abstract of the reports of the local Immigration Commissioners in New Zealand upon each vessel, and I will take them in the order in which they were despatched by me:— 1. Glenmark. (Commissioner's Report dated 10th November, 1871.) " I am glad to report that no sickness of any importance occurred during the voyage, and I would add that the surgeon-superintendent's journal shows that every attention was paid to carry out those sanitary measures as laid down in the instructions issued by the Canterbury Government The immigrants generally expressed great satisfaction at the attention they had received from the captain, surgeon-superintendent, and the officers of the ship, and no complaints of any kind were made." 2. Zealandia. (Report dated 10th January, 1872.) " The ship came into port in fine order, and the immigrants were fully satisfied with the treatment they received on the voyage."