D.—No/ la,

4

CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE

despatch in a ship to sail during the first week of January, 1872. The passengers by this vessel will doubtless consist principally of nominated applicants and single women. I have, &c, I. E. Featherston, The Hon. W. Gisborne, Wellington, New Zealand. Agent-General.

No. 4. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Colonial Seceetaet. 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sic, — 16th November, 1871. Since my arrival in England, at the latter end of July, my time has been mainly devoted to emigration, believing, as Mr. Vogel says, "That the keystone of success of the Public Works Policy is the contemporaneous increase of the population of the Colony." I telegraphed on the 4th instant from Frankfort:—" Emigration during next two years of 6,000 Germans and Scandinavians arranged." Tou will perceive from the brief report I now make of my proceedings that I have acted more from my knowledge of the mind of the Ministry than from any positive or definite instructions. Finding that there was no emigration going on, except in miserable driblets to Canterbury and Otago, I immediately employed agents to ascertain to what extent you might depend upon a stream of emigration from England and Scotland, availing myself of the services of the Revs. Peter Barclay and David Bruce, in Scotland; and of Mr. C. R. Carter, in England, directing him first to visit Cornwall, where I had been given to understand large numbers of labourers were disposed to emigrate. I also went myself, by invitation, to Aberdeen, with the view more especially of promoting tho emigration of single women. I met a committee of ladies and gentlemen connected with the Industrial Institutions, but I soon found that the institutions could supply very few suitable female domestics, and that there was a disposition on the part of many of the ladies to get rid of the inmates of their Reformatories. The boys in all the industrial establishments were too young, and were not being taught any trade or calling that would be useful to them in a Colony. The same may be said of similar institutions in Edinburgh. From the reports of the Rev. Peter Barclay, who has gone into the work with great zeal and enthusiasm, and of Mr. Carter, who is peculiarly qualified, from his personal knowledge of New Zealand, and of the condition of the working classes in the United Kingdom, for the mission intrusted to him, you will gather that the prospects of any large emigration from England and Scotland at present under the terms offered are not encouraging. Having, during my former trip to Scandinavia and Germany, satisfied myself that some portion of the large stream of emigration which annually flows thence into America might be diverted to NewZealand, I determined to pay a flying visit to those, countries, and I have no reason to be dissatisfied with the result. I only regret that my visit was not made two or three months sooner, as the emigration season closes about the beginning of December, both at Hamburg and at the Scandinavian ports. At Hamburg I entered into a contract or rather agreement, for the contract is at present being drafted by Mr. Mackrell, with a highly respectable firm, for the selection and conveyance to such ports in New Zealand as the Government may from time to time indicate, during the next two years, of 2,000 emigrants. A copy of the contract 1 hope to send you by next mail. The emigrants are to consist of as many single women accustomed to domestic service as they can secure, of not more than 200 unmarried men ; the remainder to be young married couples, with not more than from one to three children to each couple; all to be selected from the rural districts, and to be subject to my approval. The passage money for single women to be £14 each ; for all others, £10 per adult. All the emigrants, single women excepted, either to pay to the Government in cash, or give a promissory note for, £5 per adult. The Government is further to pay an agency fee of £1 per statute adult, which fee is to include all charges and expenses whatsoever. Unless I had agreed to pay £14 a head for the single women, the passage money for the others would not have been fixed at less than £12 or £13 per adult. My chief object in making the difference was to hold out a strong inducement to the contractor to procure as many single women as possible. This contract will certainly not prove remunerative unless one-fourth or one-third are single women. At Christiania I entered into an agreement, for it is not a contract, with the same firm which sent out the Norwegians last year, for the selection and conveyance to the port of embarkation to New Zealand, during the next two years, of a number equal to 3,000 adults. I made a similar agreement with a firm in Copenhagen for 1,000 Danes. It is more than probable that the offer I made to a house in Gothenburg, to enter into a like arrangement for 2,000 Swedes, will be accepted. There are one or two points in these agreements, a copy of one of which I enclose, to which I am anxious to invite your attention. 1. All the Scandinavians have to pay the cost of their outfit for bedding and mess utensils, the expenses of their journey to Christiania or Copenhagen, and the cost of a between-deck passage to the port of embarkation, namely, for the present to either Hamburg or London. After paying these expenses, there was little chance of their being able to contribute in money towards the cost of their passage to New Zealand, except in the case of single men. 2. It seemed desirable, however, that every inducement should be held out to them to pay in cash, by requiring a considerably smaller contribution in money than on a promissory note. After mature consideration and repeated discussions with the agents in different parts of Scandinavia, I adopted the scale and modes of payment specified in the memorandum of agreement, the principle being that one pound in cash is deemed equal to two pounds on promissory note. It is simple, intelligible, and, I have reason to believe, will be deemed fair by the emigrants, w rhile it will reduce the cost of emigration to the Government to a much lower amount than it has hitherto paid. Afou will perceive, however, that single men are required to piay in cash not less than £4, for the obvious reason that they can