HOW IMMIGRATION FROM IRELAND IS PROMOTED.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume I, Issue 20, 13 September 1873, Page 6

HOW IMMIGRATION FROM IRELAND IS PROMOTED.

The following facts and figures are taken from official papers laid before the House of Representatives by the Hon. Mr OBorke, during the present session of ftrS! in out* In June 1872 Mr Farnall by direction of the AgentGeneral established an emigration agency in Belfast Up to this time no effort had been made to place the advantages of emigration to this Colony before the Irish people, or to induce emigrants to come to New Zealand Mr Farnall, moreover, does not appear to have been a very energetic agent for, on the sth December, 1872, Mr Waterhouse the late Premier, in the absence of the Hon. Minister for Immigration, writes to the A-ent-General— I cannot bnt regard the feeble attempt that has boon made under the management of Mr Faruall to open up a supply of immigration from Ireland, as eminently unsatisfactory. That gentleman appears to bave been nearly three months in Ireland, and the result of his labour,, as saowii m his correspondence, is that durinthat period he has forwarded twenty-three emigrants! mat has been the total expense connected with the introduction of these twenty-three emigrants? it would

be hard to calculate, and probably painful to contemplate if calculated. The Government are thoroughly satisfied that an adequate supply of immigrants is procurable from Ireland. Urged by repeated despatches and cablegrams from the Colonial Government, the Agent-General at length goes to Ireland, and on the 14th . December last year appoints Mr Mason, at Dublin, merchant, his chief agent for Ireland. But, as in the case of Mr Farnall, he too does not appear to have been very energetic; for the Hon. Mr O'JSorke writing to the Agent-General on the 2nd August this year, only about a month ago, says "In the despatch under reply, you refer to my memorandum of 14th February last, on the subject of the unequal distribution of sub-agents and advertisement! throughout Ireland. I still observe that there is a great preponderance of both in tbe district you allotted to Mr Farnall. I have refrained from' returning to the subject, expecting that as you had appointed Mr Mason, of Dublin, as your chief emigration agent for Ireland, this matter would have been rectified. But since that gentleman's appointment by you in December last, we have not heard of his proceedings. I had hoped that you would have required of him and forwarded to the colony quarterly reports, similar to those obtained from Messrs Birch, Seaton, and Farnall, in order that the Government might be kept informed of the benefits accruing to emigration to the colony through his exertions." The above gives a general view of the state of the question so far. It is evident much has not been done to promote emigration to this colony, and that the Government are thoroughly dissatisfied, at least apparently, with the conduct; of ;the Agent-General and his subordinates in Ireland.

In a letter under date 19th March this year, the Agent-General sends to the Hon. Colonial Secretary, a return of the names, localities, and ordinary occupations of the whole of the local emigration agents ; also a list of newspapers in which advertisements appear by order of the Agent-General. J*rom these documents the following results appear: The number of agents was, for England and Wales, 53, fairly distributed over the Kingdom ; for Scotland, 78, also well distributed throughout the country ; and for Ireland, 46, of whom 36 were in Ulster, mostly in the counties distinguished for intolerance and. Orangeism ; and £the other ten were to be found in the three provinces of Leinster, MunsW, and Connaught.

As to advertisements in newspapers, the AgentGeneral arranged for the matter ;thus : he advertised in 19,5 English papers, in 32, Scotch,. and in 17 Irish newspapers. All the Irish newspapers are published in Ulster, for the moßt part in Antrim and Londonderry, with the exception of three weeklies, viz., two in Galway, in compliment, we suppose, to the Hon. the Minister of Immigration, and one in the King's county in compliment, prehaps, to some other equally dear friend. Before drawing our conclusion from the above premises, there are two other matters to which it is necessary to draw attention. The Agent-General ordered special advertisements for domestic servants, in 47 newspapers in England and Scotland; but not in even one Irish newspaper did he permit such an advertisement to appear ! In the second place, the Agent-General stated that out of 7,585 immigrants sent by him to this colony up to 30th June last, 1181 were Irish ; of these however, between three and four hundred were nominated. We take leave to doubt the accuracy of this statement. "Who has seen, or spoken, to, or even heard of these hundreds of Irish imnrgrants ? Where are they ? If he sent them what has become of them? Let inquiry be made, and we undertake to say, that with the exception of the nominated immigrants, few comparatively will be found. It appears to us, therefore — and we have little doubt it will appear in the sama light to all right-minded men — that nothing less than an Iris\ agency will satisfy public opinion ; that ageacies have been so managed as fco convert the Belfast Agent and his subordinates, in effect, into recruiting officers of Orangemen.; and Mr Mason and 'his subordinates into automaton* ad fucum faciendum, dummies for throwing dust into people's eyes; This is clever, it is adroit, and has the advantage of saving the tender conscience of the noble-minded AgentGeneral from becoming particeps criminis in the horrid crime of establishing the -beast — Popery— in this holy

S? L £ w^* Wlll the P ublic » tae taxpayers, say to this trifling with their dearest interests ? Anyone who reads the papers to which we referred, at the beginning ot this article, cannot fail to see that the Agent-General looks upon himself as in reality the master, not the man. What idea have ministers of their own power and dignity ?