29

D.—3

Associations and others, and to my letter of 14th November (No. 707), informing you of the terms upon which I had agreed to send Mr. C. Holloway, the delegate of the Oxford National Labourers' Union, to New Zealand, I have now the honor to report that Mr. Holloway took his departure for the Colony on Tuesday last, per steamer " Mongol," in charge of a considerable body of agricultural labourers from Oxford and the neighbouring counties of Warwick and Gloucestershire. Mr. Holloway has for many years followed, himself, the occupation of an agricultural labourer. He appears to enjoy in a very large degree the confidence of the agricultural classes, and was elected Chairman and Delegate of the Labourers' Union —an office in which he exhibited so much intelligence and energy, that shortly before his departure he was re-elected for a further period of twelve months. The terms on which Mr. Holloway proceeds to New Zealand are fully set forth in the enclosure to my letter of 14th November (No. 707). But I should here mention that I have made one alteration, by extending the period of his residence in the Colony from two months to four, provided it should be necessary to the furtherance or success of his plans. I have, &c., I. E. Featherston, The Hon. Julius Vogel, C.M.G., Wellington. Agent-General.

No. 40. The Agent-General to the Hon. the Minister for Immigration. (No. 892.) 7, Westminster Chambers, Victoria Street, Westminster, S.W., Sir, — 13th January, 1874. I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your Despatch of the 25th October (No. 239), on the general subject of Emigration. Allow me to express, in reply, my gratification at the friendly tone in which it is couched, and to assure you that I join most heartily in the hope you entertain that our relations will be of a cordial character. It will always be my endeavour to give immediate effect to your instructions. At the same time I shall be glad to avail myself of the permission yon have given me to express my own opinions freely whenever your instructions may appear to me open to objection. I am glad to have so full and explicit a statement of your views, with which, in the main, I entirely concur. There are several points, however, to which I desire particularly to allude. 1. In the first place, it appears to me that whatever number of local agents I may employ, it is utterly impracticable to insist on a personal inspection of every emigrant, scattered, as they necessarily are, over very wide areas. The checks imposed have hitherto, I think, proved quite sufficient to prevent a careless or indifferent selection; for, as lam glad to learn from the reports of the local Immigration Commissioners, those already sent have on the whole proved well adapted to the requirements of the Colony. Of course the emigrants, if in depot, arc carefully inspected, and a further and more minute examination takes place as soon as they are on board the ship. Great care is taken in every case to ascertain the genuineness of the certificates given to applicants by medical men and employers. 2. With respect to nominated emigrants, I admit that I have hitherto been reluctant to place any obstacle in the way of sending out parties who have been nominated by their friends in the Colony, although in some cases they were not persons whom, under ordinary circumstances, I should have passed. In accordance with your request, I beg to forward herewith, for your inspection, an indiscriminate batch of certificates and correspondence relating to a number of emigrants. 3. So far as my experience goes it is entirely in favour of local agents, whose remuneration is made to depend on the number of eligible emigrants they procure, and the continuance of whose agency is also contingent upon the selections being of the class specified in the regulations. Hitherto I have found no difficulty in controlling the operations of these agents. I must say that the instances in which local agents-have practised any wilful deception on me have been exceedingly rare; nor are the efforts of the local agents so entirely unproductive as the Government appears to suppose. The enclosed schedule (marked A) shows approximately the numbers obtained by a few of the more active of them during a period of six months; and it must be borne in mind that a very large number of intending emigrants, after putting themselves in communication with the local agents, and obtaining the necessary information, communicate afterwards direct with this office. The names of these emigrants do not appear in the returns of the agents, and of course they do not receive any capitation allowance upon these. 4. As I have already pointed out, the experiment of sending home paid agents has not been attended with the results anticipated by the Government; and I certainly cannot speak favourably of the agency established in Dublin. On the other hand, Mr. Andrew Duncan, who (under his agreement with the Provincial Government of Canterbury) is to be paid'by a capitation allowance on the number of emigrants actually obtained, has already been very successful in his operations. The employment of paid agents is rendered less necessary by my having secured the services of the representatives of all the principal Agricultural Unions in this country.