5

D.—2a.

as to the general character of the people. In your despatch of the Ist November, you direct my attention to the report on the " Duke of Edinburgh," and say, " The Commissioners report the class of immigrants as highly satisfactory, and well suited to the requirements of the province." Of the " Chile," you say, " Commissioners report favourably of the class of immigrants and their conduct during the voyage." Of the " Star of India," you observe that " the Commissioners reported favourably on the ship and the immigrants she brought." In regard to the report on the " Ocean Mail," you express your satisfaction that the " Commissioners report so favourably of the immigrants and the arrangements made for their health and comfort." In regard to the " Waitangi," you observe that the report shows, " The vessel was in a very satisfactory condition, and immigrants appeared to be a suitable class, and obtained immediate employment." The report on the " Cartvale " takes exception to some of the married couples, but describes the " single men and women" as " fine healthy people." The reports on the " Zealandia," " Invereargill," " Jessie Eeadman," " Helen Denny," " Bebington," " Howrah," and " Hydaspes " are in general terms satisfactory, though there was a certain amount of illness on several of those vessels. The report on the " Soukar "is especially satisfactory. Complaints is made of certain immigrants by the " Douglas," who had been selected by the Emigrants' Aid Corporation. On the other hand, the immigrants by the " Auckland " are described as of a " superior class, most suitable for supplying the wants of the province." The Commissioners who surveyed the " Pleiades " say that " The captain and surgeon give a very good character to all the immigrants—the class of immigrants generally good;" but exception is taken to some of the married people as apparently wanting in stamina. The report on the " Geraldine Paget" says, "The class of immigrants were very good, and appeared well adapted for the colony." The report on the " Crusader " says, " The class of immigrants appeared admirably adapted for the colony, and their conduct during the voyage was highly spoken of." The Immigration Officer at Auckland states that two-thirds of the immigrants per the " Assaye " were almost immediately engaged. In regard to the <: Avalanche," you say to me, in your despatch of 13th February, No. 271, " You will be pleased to learn that the appearance of the ship and immigrants met with the entire approval of the Immigration Commissioners." The Commissioners report on the " Nelson "as follows : —" The immigrants by the ' Nelson ' are a very good class, who appear to have been judiciously selected to supply the present demand for agricultural labour in the province." The Immigration Officer's report on the " Carnatic " says of the immigrants, " They appear to be in good health and spirits, and pleased with the country to which they have come, and the reception they have had." The report on the " Margaret G-albraitb. " says, " The immigrants appeared to be a superior class." On board the ship " Clarence " there was a great mortality among the infant children of the Shetland Islanders, who formed a large proportion of its passengers, and their habits are severely spoken of by the surgeon; but the other immigrants are described as " for the most part healthy and desirable colonists." The report on the " Dilharree " is,in general terms, satisfactory as to the state of the ship and people. The Commissioners describe the immigrants by the " Humboldt " as " a fine healthy-looking lot of people, and most of them well clothed and tidy in appearance." The report on the " Warwick "is satisfactory. That on the " Invererne " says, " The immigrants by this ship are perhaps above the average in point of suitableness, especially as respects the large proportion of single men among them, who as a rule, on account of the scarcity of house accommodation, meet with more ready employment in the country districts." The Commissioners describe the class of immigrants by the " Waimate " as "very good." The report on the " Wild Deer" is in general terms satisfactory. The report on the " Lady Jocelyn" says, " The class of immigrants was highly satisfactory, and appeared well adapted for the colony. The " City of Dunedin " had an outbreak of measles on board, but otherwise the report is highly satisfactory. His Honor the Superintendent of Havvke's Bay writes of the immigrants by the "Hudson," "The immigrants by the ' Hudson ' are a very good class of people, the whole being engaged within forty-eight hours." In the same way the Emigration Officer speaks of those by the "Rakaia" as having at once found employment. The reports on the " Gareloch," " Wellington," and " Michael Angelo " are, as to the general character of the people, satisfactory; and as to those who went by the " Berar," the Commissioners say that, " taking the immigrants as a body, they appear to be a good class of people." 4. I am much gratified to learn, by your despatch of 11th March, No. 67, that you have directed the Immigration Officers' reports for the several provinces to be addressed to your department monthly, and thence forwarded to me. These papers afford, as you suggest, much valuable information to the officers of this department, and important indications as to the proper guidance of the stream of emigration hence towards the colony. They at the same time corroborate, in a manner very interesting from its careful detail, the evidence, supplied from the higher sources to which I have referred, of the good average standard of the class of immigrants despatched to the colony. For example, I read in the report of the Auckland Immigration Officer for the mouth of January —" Of the immigrants by four ships arriving here between the 26th December and the 29th January, amounting in all to 1,022 statute adults, only 13 are at this date (Bth February) unemployed. Most of these are temporarily invalided from various causes." The proportion, 13 to 1,022, would, I need hardly suggest, be a very small one among persons of the highest average of health in any country. In all the other reports I find unqualified recognition of the good general character, moral and physical, of the immigrants, and of their rapid absorption in various industrial pursuits. It is of always of great advantage to receive clear indications, as in the report of the Immigration Officer at Tarannki, what classes of skilled labour are and are not required in particular provinces. In the report of the Officer at Riverton, specially forwarded by you on the 13th March, No. 75, I observe that he regrets he cannot report so favourably of the selections by the Agent-General as of those whom he calls the Brogden immigrants ; but at the same time he says that on the whole the immigrants who arrived in his district during 1874 " have found suitable employment, have done well, and in many instances extraordinarily well." Nor can I read, without a sense that the immigration service of the colony has already achieved a solid success, such statements as that the " immigrants who arrived during the previous year (1873) have become fully settled, and have, many of them, from the class of labourers merged into that of load contractors and employers of labour." Such facts tend to show, if I may be excused the expression, that there is a rapid and solid stratification of society in progress in the colony.